TUESDAY, June 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- For patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, teclistamab monotherapy significantly improves progression-free and overall survival, according to a study published online May 29 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held from May 29 to June 2 in Chicago.
Cyrille Touzeau, M.D., Ph.D., from the University Hospital of Nantes in France, and colleagues randomly assigned patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma who had previously received one, two, or three lines of therapy, including an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody and lenalidomide, to receive teclistamab (296 patients) or the investigator's choice of pomalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (PVd) or carfilzomib and dexamethasone (Kd; 297 patients).
The researchers found that teclistamab significantly improved progression-free survival versus PVd or Kd (estimated 18-month progression-free survival, 69.8 versus 26.9 percent; hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.29). Compared with PVd or Kd, the percentage of patients with a complete response or better was higher with teclistamab (65.9 versus 16.8 percent). Compared with PVd or Kd, overall survival was improved with teclistamab (estimated 18-month overall survival, 79.2 versus 68.6 percent; hazard ratio for death, 0.60). Adverse events of grade 3 or 4 occurred in 84.9 and 76.3 percent of teclistamab and PVd or Kd recipients, respectively; grade 5 adverse events occurred in 6.5 and 3.5 percent, respectively.
"To see that this drug is so efficacious and so safe across patients from all these locations worldwide is a very strong signal," senior author C. Ola Landgren, M.D., Ph.D., from the University of Miami, said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to biopharmaceutical companies, including Johnson & Johnson, which manufactures teclistamab and funded the study.
