Idecabtagene vicleucel for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma: a review of recent advances

The introduction of new classes of drugs for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) in the past 2 decades, such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulators and anti-CD38 monoclonal antibodies, coupled with autologous stem cell transplantation, has approximately doubled the 5-year survival rate of MM patients. However, the patients eventually relapse and/or become resistant to the drugs and treatment. The recent emergence of anti-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) therapies, especially chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) immunotherapy targeting BCMA, holds great prospect in MM treatment. In this article, we review in detail the advances of idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel, bb-2121), the first CAR-T therapy targeting BCMA for treating relapse or refractory MM approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2021, including the preclinical study and phase I and II clinical trials. Also, it is predicted in this review that despite its amazing clinical efficacy and relatively lower toxicity, a lot of challenges and unsolved problems for ide-cel therapy remain in the way ahead.