Can single cell sequencing help to better define and monitor MM?

During the 62nd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition, the Multiple Myeloma Hub spoke to Maximilian Merz, Heidelberg University Hospital, Heidelberg, DE, and Nizar Bahlis, University of Calgary, Calgary, CA. We asked, Can single cell sequencing help to better define and monitor multiple myeloma?

Merz highlights the importance of defining what you want to study, the myeloma cells or the tumor microenvironment. He explains that with single cell sequencing it is possible to analyze different clones that are present in every patient with myeloma, and that in the future it will be important to look at risk-stratified therapy and identify modes of resistance. He also states that with single cell sequencing we can understand why certain therapies work in certain patients.

Bahlis focuses on non-plasma cell compartment and single cell techniques. He gives an overview of the studies on single cell sequencing presented at ASH 2020. He also reports the results of a study performing a broad immunophenotypic and transcriptomic characterization, at the single cell level, of the peripheral blood and bone marrow T cells of sensitive and resistant patients with multiple myeloma treated with B-cell maturation antigen-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell and bispecific T-cell engager therapies.