EHA 2023 | KarMMa-3 subgroup analysis: ide-cel vs standard regimens in triple-class exposed myeloma

So KarMMa-3 is the first Phase III clinical trial evaluating CAR-T cells against the standard of care treatments. So, in this trial the patients had received two to four prior lines of treatments and they were randomized to receive either ide-cel, the CAR-T cells, or a choice of five different standard of treatment regimens. So, we’ve seen the data earlier this year with an improvement of the median PFS – 13.3 months for patients receiving CAR-T cell versus 4.4 months for the patients receiving the standard of care treatments.

And what we’ve done here is a sub-analysis and looking at the efficacy and the safety of the CAR-T cells and the standard of care, per lines of treatment. So, patients who had received only two lines, or three, or four. And what was interesting is that, as we could expect, the efficacy – so the first message is that the difference that we observed between CAR-T cells and standard of care is observed in all the different prior lines of treatments – but the efficacy seems to be higher in patients with two prior lines of treatments as compared to patients with four prior lines of treatment. This is a numerical higher response rate, numerical higher median PFS. And interestingly as well, when we look at the rate of infections, it’s also numerically lower in patients with two prior lines of treatments as opposed to patients with four prior lines of treatments. So, the message is that it works for all this patient population without a difference between those subgroups. But it’s also a kind of indication that perhaps the earlier, the better