Teclistamab Optec Trial: Prophylactic Toci and Dex during Step-up Doisng | Robert Rifkin, MD | #ASH24

So I'm Robert Rifkin, I'm a medical oncologist hematologist in Denver, Colorado at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers and a member of the Sara Cannon Research Institute Multiple Myeloma Executive Committee.

And it's my pleasure to review our ongoing Optec study. And for those of you not familiar with that, we're using teclistamab on the on-label indication, which is initially in fourth-line treated patients. And then in order to decrease the risk of cytokine release neurotoxicity such as ICANS, everyone is being treated with prophylactic tocilizumab and some dexamethasone to decrease the incidence and severity of CRS.

It's a planned 50 patient trial, and we've accrued somewhere around 18 and have seen dramatic results with the reduction of CRS. And no ICANS. And so this is going to be very nice because people that aren't comfortable with bispecifics live in dread of treating CRS, ICANS, and other complications, and this should pave the way to make it much more accessible and user friendly.

Because you have to remember, most physicians aren't myeloma specialists, and they only have a handful of patients in their practice. So we need to make sure that they're well educated. And the responses are quick, very deep, and long-lasting.

And up until bispecific and CAR-Ts, we never saw anything as deep and as durable. So it's a huge advance and we want to make it more accessible to all the patients.