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Video

Treating Plasma Cell Leukemia: New Insights on Bispecific Antibodies | Mahmoud Gaballa, MD

Posted by
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• December 20, 2025

Description

Dr. Mahmoud Gaballa discusses new research on the use of bispecific antibodies in plasma cell leukemia, a rare and very aggressive form of multiple myeloma. The study compared several bispecific therapies, including teclistamab, elranatamab, and talquetamab, across different forms of plasma cell leukemia. Results showed that talquetamab led to better outcomes than BCMA-directed bispecific antibodies, though overall survival remains limited in this high-risk population. Dr. Gaballa also explains why further research is needed and explores future strategies, including using bispecific antibodies as a bridge to CAR-T cell therapy to improve outcomes.

Transcript

Hello. I'm Doctor Mahmoud Gaballa from MD Anderson, myeloma specialist. So my research is about the use of bispecific antibodies in plasma cell leukemia. And when we say plasma cell leukemia, we mean when that very aggressive myeloma has 5% or more plasma cells in the blood.

And there are different forms of plasma cell leukemia. We looked at all of them and we looked at several products, including teclistamab, elranatamab, and talquetamab. And generally the outcomes were better with talquetamab. Talquetamab, whether in the acute phase of plasma cell leukemia, which we call active leukemia, or in patients who had historical plasma cell leukemia, across the board talquetamab performed better, with a median PFS of roughly around six months before they progress or overall survival roughly around one year or so.

Bispecific antibodies, BCMA directed, which are teclistamab and elranatamab, had worse outcomes. And we have some theories, hypotheses on why that's the case, but more research is needed.

So our research shows that talquetamab is the preferred agent in this very high-risk population, but still, given the relatively poor outcomes, work is still needed to improve the outcomes. And one of the strategies that we could look into moving forward is using bispecific as a bridge to Car-T.

Historically, earlier this year, there was data published that Car-T and plasma cell leukemia had much better outcomes. And in this conference as well, there is also data on the use of Car-T in plasma cell leukemia. So perhaps combining both modalities, using bispecific as a bridge to Car-T, may be the way forward, but more research is needed there.

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