• Posted June 3, 2026

Chemo-Free Drug Shows Major Survival, Remission Gains In Relapsed Multiple Myeloma

A recently approved cancer immunotherapy can put nearly two-thirds of people with relapsed multiple myeloma into complete remission, a new clinical trial has found.

About 70% of patients treated with teclistamab (Tecvayli) achieved 18 months without any progression of their cancer, compared to about 27% who received standard treatment, researchers reported May 29 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Further, about 66% achieved complete remission, with no detectable cancer, compared with about 17% of those receiving standard treatment, the study found.

“Now we have chemotherapy-free immunotherapy options for patients whose myeloma has relapsed for the first time,” said senior researcher Dr. Carl Landgren. He’s chief of the Sylvester Myeloma Institute at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

“We are seeing very deep responses and long clinical benefit from these therapies,” he said in a news release. “This is part of a much bigger transformation happening in myeloma care.”

Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that occurs in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found in the bone marrow, according to the American Cancer Society.

However, multiple myeloma often comes back after initial treatment, and other options are needed to beat back the cancer once it recurs, researchers said.

Teclistamab helps hunter/killer immune T cells target myeloma cells by linking them to a protein found on the cancer cells, researchers said.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved teclistamab in March as a treatment for multiple myeloma.

For the new trial, researchers enrolled nearly 600 patients across 24 countries. All participants had multiple myeloma that had returned after one to three prior treatments. 

Roughly half the patients received teclistamab and the other half received standard follow-up treatment.

Teclistamab effectively stopped cancer progression and even sent myeloma into remission for most patients, results showed.

The immunotherapy also improved overall survival, with 79% surviving after 18 months compared with nearly 69% among those on other treatments, researchers said.

“To see that this drug is so efficacious and so safe across patients from all these locations worldwide is a very strong signal,” Landgren said. “To see that in patients who have been exposed and refractory to commonly used myeloma treatments is very important.”

There are side effects – patients receiving teclistamab have a higher risk of infection, researchers noted. Close monitoring and preventive use of antiviral and antibiotic medications are needed to help ward off infections.

Researchers are now studying whether drugs like teclistamab could benefit patients as a first-line treatment.

“For me, the goal is to develop curative strategies,” Landgren said. “We are working toward treatments that can either eliminate the disease entirely or control it for very long periods while minimizing the burden on patients and preserving quality of life.”

The trial was funded by the drug’s maker, Johnson & Johnson.

More information

The American Cancer Society has more about multiple myeloma.

SOURCE: University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, news release, May 29, 2026