Carvykti leaves half a myeloma cohort treatment-free at five years

Johnson & Johnson reported five-year results for Carvykti (ciltacabtagene autoleucel) on 25 September 2026 at the International Myeloma Society annual meeting. Carvykti, developed with Legend Biotech, is a CAR-T therapy: a patient’s own T cells are engineered to attack myeloma cells and infused back once.

Cohort A of the CARTITUDE-2 study enrolled 20 people whose multiple myeloma had relapsed or stopped responding early in its course of treatment. At a median follow-up of 60.7 months, 10 of the 20 were alive and free of disease progression, having received no maintenance or further anti-myeloma therapy after the single infusion. Median progression-free survival was 60.5 months and five-year overall survival was 69.2%.

No new CAR-T-related neurotoxicity appeared since the previous analysis. One new haematologic cancer, an acute myeloid leukaemia, was recorded, along with two further deaths, one from progressive disease and one from a new cancer. The cohort is small, and the result describes durable remission in half of it rather than a proven cure.