I'm Bruno Paiva from the University of Navarre in Pamplona, Spain. At this Ash we are presenting many different studies, but perhaps I would highlight those around the MRD field. On one hand, we are analyzing the biology of the MRD clone. We believe this is extremely important to identify new targets to overcome MRD resistance and also to understand why some drugs do not work anymore in patients with persistent MRD. In fact, we showed at the meeting that the MRD clone is completely different from the predominant clone at the time of diagnosis. This may help us to understand why this clinical phenomenon. On the other hand, we show how to monitor depth of response and treatment efficacy in patients treated with CAR T cells, different treatment, and therefore the kinetics of serological and the MRD response are different from other treatment scenarios. But to sum up, MRD sustained high sensitive is also important in patients treated with CAR T cells. We have identified a new myobarcar that is the reappearance of normal BCMA positive plasma cells as a surrogate of risk of disease progression, particularly in patients with undetectable MRD. Then we show for the first time this Ash, a new flow cytometry method that is empowered to detect MRD in blood. This was a clear unmet need in myeloma that reaches a sensitivity of 10 to the minus 7, even 10 to the minus 8 in some patients, and is showing to be clearly predictive of outcomes. And together potentially with mass spectrometry, these two methods can be an alternative to bone aeroaspirates, particularly in late stages of treatment such as maintenance or observation if patients are not being treated until disease progression.
HealthTree • May 1, 2023