Bristol Myers' blood cancer cell therapy succeeds in mid-stage trial

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell.

An estimated 36,000 new cases and nearly 11,000 deaths from the disease are expected in the United States this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

Sept. 8 (Reuters) - Bristol Myers Squibb BMY.N said on Tuesday its experimental cell therapy showed a high overall response rate in a mid-stage trial, in patients with a hard-to-treat form of blood cancer.

The study evaluated the therapy, called arlocabtagene autoleucel, or arlo-cel, in patients with advanced multiple myeloma who had already tried four major classes of standard treatments without lasting success.

Bristol Myers said the trial met its main goal by showing a meaningful improvement in the overall response rate among patients who had exhausted standard therapies.

It also met a key secondary goal, completely clearing detectable signs of the cancer in some patients.

While the drugmaker did not release specific numerical data, it said the results were statistically significant and clinically meaningful and that full findings will be presented at an upcoming medical meeting.

Arlo-cel is a CAR-T cell therapy administered as a single infusion. The personalized treatment works by extracting a patient's own immune cells, modifying them in a laboratory to target a specific protein on cancer cells called GPRC5D and infusing them back into the body to attack the disease.

The therapy's safety profile was consistent with expectations and in line with other CAR-T and GPRC5D-targeting therapies, the company said.