Dr Joseph Mikhael Previews EHA 2023, His Presentation on the Future of MM Care

Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, shares what audiences can look forward to during his upcoming presentation at the European Hematology Association annual meeting (EHA 2023) on the future multiple myeloma (MM) treatment landscape and other sessions he hopes attendees will check out.

Mikhael is a professor at the Translational Genomics Research Institute, a consultant hematologist at the HonorHealth Research Institute, and the chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation.

Transcript

What will audiences be able to take away from your session on the future of the MM treatment landscape?

Well, I think we all recognize that multiple myeloma has gone through a tremendous evolution over the last few years. In fact, I've been involved in myeloma research for over 25 years and I don't think I've ever seen a more accelerated phase of change in myeloma than this very year.

So, in the session that I'm presenting regarding the current and future landscape of myeloma, I think what people will want to take away from it is not only what is the current standard of care, and how we're employing the immune system, and immunotherapies—which include things like bispecific antibodies and CAR [chimeric antigen receptor] T-cell therapy—but also how those are going to affect the future of myeloma and how we're going to likely be using them earlier in the disease course, how we're likely to be using them in combination, and in ways that can ultimately benefit the patient with less toxicity and increased efficacy.

What are some other presentations at EHA 2023 that you're excited to attend and what can audiences look forward to?

I think EHA 2023 is going to be a fantastic meeting for multiple myeloma. We have a tremendous amount of research going on across the whole of the world that will be profiled in multiple settings. I would particularly look to the oral sessions, where we're going to see updates in many of the novel therapies that have recently been introduced, such as bispecific antibodies using them in combination in CAR T-cell therapies. Arguably, to me the most exciting abstract will actually be in the plenary session this year at EHA, where we will see the results of the CARTITUDE-4 study, which is a phase 3 trial looking at using the cilta-cel product, the CAR T-cell therapy, in 1 to 3 prior lines vs what would currently be the standard of care with triplet therapies. And so, we're very excited to see the full results of that and the potential of moving CAR T-cell therapy which is now typically used after 4 prior lines of therapy now to be used earlier in the disease course.