What is ABECMA? ABECMA (idecabtagene vicleucel) is a prescription medicine for the treatment of multiple myeloma in patients who have received at least four kinds of treatment regimens that have not worked or have stopped working. ABECMA is a medicine made from your own white blood cells; the cells are genetically modified to recognize and attack your multiple myeloma cells.

This website is best viewed using the horizontal display on your tablet device.

This website is best viewed using the vertical display on your mobile device.

Glossary of multiple myeloma and CAR T
cell therapy terms

CAR=chimeric antigen receptor.

Apheresis is a procedure in which blood is collected, part of the blood such as platelets or white blood cells are taken out, and the rest of the blood is returned to the patient.

B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) is a specific marker found on normal and cancerous plasma cells, including nearly all myeloma cells, making it a target for multiple myeloma treatments.

CAR T cell therapy is a type of treatment in which a patient’s T cells (a type of immune cell) are changed in a laboratory so they can attack target cells with a specific protein on their surface, such as BCMA.

Complete response (CR) or better is a term that means there is no detectable evidence of tumor in the body (all signs of myeloma have disappeared). A CR does not mean the myeloma has been cured.

Duration of response is the length of time a patient continues to respond to therapy without their multiple myeloma growing or spreading.

Follow-up time is the time between infusion and the most recent time point when data on the patient’s outcomes were recorded.

Median is the middle number in a set of data. This means half the numbers in a group are more than the median, and half the numbers in the group are less than the median.

Overall response is the term used when there is a meaningful decrease in signs of myeloma. This includes partial response (a decrease in the amount of myeloma in the body) and complete response.

Short-course chemotherapy, or lymphodepleting chemotherapy, is a course of anticancer drugs given before CAR T cell therapy to help prepare your body for treatment.

T cells are a type of white blood cell that are part of the immune system. T cells develop from stem cells found in bone marrow and help protect the body from infection and abnormal cells, including cancer cells.