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CASE REPORT article
Front. Immunol.
Sec. Cancer Immunity and Immunotherapy
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1564774
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Background: Chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cells targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) have been used as an effective therapy against relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM). However, the relapse rates in these patients are still high, which may be related to the poor quality of T cells after multiple chemotherapy. The case reported here demonstrated the effectiveness and safety of first-line anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy for high-risk MM patients, even in frailty with multiple comorbidities.2 Case presentation: A 75-year-old female was diagnosed with bi-clonal gammopathy and high-risk MM with extramedullary mass in the right caput femoris. The patient was fragile with multiple comorbidities, including pneumonia, left lower-limb deep venous thrombosis, and epilepsy secondary to cerebral hemorrhage. Considering the patient's fragility and comorbidities, commercial equecabtagene autoleucel, a fully human anti-BCMA CAR T-cells, as first-line CAR-T cell therapy, was proposed and accepted by the patient and her family. After one cycle of VCD regimen (bortezomib, cyclophosphamide, and dexamethasone), she reached very good partial response (VGPR). Then her leukapheresis was performed and the harvested cells were sent to the manufacturer for preparation. After lymphodepletion was performed using FC chemotherapy (fludarabine and cyclophosphamide), her equecabtagene autoleucel was transfused. On day 21 after infusion, she achieved stringent complete remission (sCR) with minimal residual disease (MRD) negative without severe toxicity. The CAR-T cells/CD3 + T cell ratio gradually increased, reaching a maximum of 54.97% on day 14, and gradually decreased, remaining at 0.03% on the 153 rd day. The patient received right hip replacement plus pelvic lesion curettage 7 months after CAR-T transfusion due to her pain in right hip, but no MM cells were found in postoperative pathology. Hitherto, her deep remission persisted for 12 months without any maintenance therapy.First-line anti-BCMA CAR-T cell therapy is effective and safe for high-risk MM patients, even in fragile patients with multiple comorbidities.
Keywords: Multiple Myeloma, bi-clonal gammopathy, chimeric antigen receptor T cells, first-line therapy, case report
Received: 22 Jan 2025; Accepted: 28 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Fang, Lin, Shen, Ni, Zhang, Cai, Zhou and Hou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Lijing Shen, Renji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.
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