JERUSALEM, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- A new study has found that a combination of two existing biological drugs for multiple myeloma cancer can halt the progression of the disease, Israel's Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center (SMC) said in a statement on Sunday.

Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that begins in plasma cells in the bone marrow and causes abnormal cell growth, leading to multiple bone injuries and an increased risk of fractures.

In the study, conducted in three Israeli hospitals and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Israel, Canada, Spain, and South Korea tested the combination of talquetamab and teclistamab on patients with advanced disease.

According to SMC, this study is the first in the world to combine two biological drugs, both bispecific antibodies that activate immune T cells.

While some patients with advanced multiple myeloma survive only a few months, the combined drug treatment resulted in a response and a significant improvement in the condition of about 80 percent of the subjects.

Additionally, the response rate to the new treatment among patients with extramedullary disease, in which myeloma cells migrate through the bloodstream, was 61 percent, with more than 80 percent showing no further progression of the disease within a year and a half.

The researchers explained that when treated with only one drug, resistance develops because cancer cells learn to evade it by either stopping the presentation of the antibody's target protein or altering the protein, so the antibody can't bind to it.

With the combined use of two antibodies, cancer cells would have to undergo simultaneous changes in both targets, significantly reducing the likelihood of resistance.

The combination treatment had side effects, but according to the researchers, they were manageable with proper care. Enditem

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