So I'm Doctor Robert Rifkin, I'm a hematologist oncologist at Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers in Denver, Colorado, and a member of the Sarah Cannon Research Institute and the Myeloma Executive Committee.
At this year's ASH, we're updating a study that's been running for a fair bit of time called MM-6. And what MM-6 did was explore what's called an M-class transition. So newly diagnosed transplant ineligible patients were the target for the study. They could all have any Velcade-based induction. And after three cycles, if they were stable or responding, they got switched to an all-oral regimen with ixazomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone, otherwise known as IRd.
Initially, the study was slow to take off because nobody really done an in-class transition. But then along came the pandemic, where nobody wanted to go to a doctor's office or be seen, for that matter. And once you got more than one cycle in and we knew you were tolerating the oral regimens, the visits greatly decreased in frequency. And so it was actually perfect for the pandemic for unintended reasons.
And we're presenting longer-term data on follow-up and still have very nice progression-free survival and a nice prolongation of time to next treatment. So it represents a viable option for a certain group of patients. And it's probably good if you're elderly and have a slow relapse and don't need to collaborate with the expensive agents. And unlike taclistamab and some of the others, BCMA targeted things, these people haven't seen that, and they should have far fewer infections, which is one of the big issues with the BCMA targeted molecules.
HealthTree • December 17, 2024