New findings on the role of the immune microenvironment presented at ASH 2020

During the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the Multiple Myeloma Hub spoke to Elisabet E. Manasanch, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, US, and Taxiarchis Kourelis, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, US. They discuss new findings regarding the role of the immune microenvironment presented at ASH 2020

In this podcast, Manasanch and Kourelis describe two studies on immune microenvironment changes in myeloma. The first study is a preliminary analysis of peripheral blood and bone marrow samples from patients with smoldering myeloma. This included identifying changes to immune cell composition and using RNA/DNA sequencing to identify biomarkers associated with immune changes in patients with disease progression. From the data, they outline possible new avenues in immune cell profiling for the prognosis of high-risk precursor patients, as well as therapeutic targeting, including the potential for curing at the precursor stage.

 The second study for discussion compared major components of tumor ecosystems in patients with newly diagnosed/relapsed myeloma that are triple-class refractory. Kourelis brings attention to unhealthy T-cell compartments in more heavily pretreated patients compared with patients with newly diagnosed/relapsed disease and the implications for their response to T-cell-based immunotherapies.