Health Rounds: Regeneron drug wipes out residual multiple myeloma cells in small trial

By Nancy Lapid

Dec 10 (Reuters) – A recently approved antibody drug from Regeneron Pharmaceuticals eradicates residual traces of multiple myeloma after initial treatments, potentially allowing patients to avoid grueling bone marrow transplants, preliminary data from a small mid-stage trial suggest.

Patients in the trial had received initial treatments that eliminated nearly all of their cancer cells.

Usually, individuals with residual cancer cells, accounting for roughly half of patients treated with modern first-line drugs, would go on to ‍receive high-dose toxic chemotherapy to destroy the remaining cancer cells and a bone marrow transplant to regrow healthy replacements. Study leader Dr. C. Ola Landgren of University of Miami Miller School of Medicine called the regimen “a brutal tre