According to Targeted Oncology, the treatment options for patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma are expanding rapidly, notably through clinical trial evidence supporting a number of three-drug combination regimens. Sundar Jagannath, MD, the director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at The Tisch Cancer Institute and a professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, detailed many of the key research results shaping this new landscape during a presentation at the 19th Annual International Congress on Hematologic Malignancies: Focus on Leukemias, Lymphomas and Myeloma that Physicians Education Resource (PER) hosted February 20-21 in Miami, Florida. Now we have a panoply of treatment choices, Jagannath said in an interview, adding that the field has become "more exciting. During his presentation, Jagannath referenced five combination regimens explored in these clinical trials:
In presenting these trials. Jagannath noted that the regimen tested in the ASPIRE trial represents a potential new standard of care in relapsed multiple myeloma. It clearly showed that if you use the three-drug approach, it was quite effective in improving the progression free survival and a trend toward improvement in overall survival, he said in the interview. Moreover, he noted that these three drugs could be combined effectively without added toxicity. . Surprisingly, the patients who got the three drugs actually stayed on the three-drug combination longer. In the pomalidomide trial, the findings showed that patients who received the triplet therapy from the start of the trial experienced a better PFS rate than those who had cyclophosphamide added to their regimen at a later time. Perhaps in relapsed myeloma patients, you have a window of opportunity to give the best therapy, because if you wait and they relapse, sometimes the relapse could be more aggressive or the patient may not have a good performance status, said Jagannath. He also noted that patients could experience renal impairment or that their disease could become more refractory. Noting the positive results of the other trials, Jagannath observed that in the near future, we may have additional new agents to tackle these patients. To read the article in its entirety, click here.
about the author
Lizzy Smith
Lizzy Smith was diagnosed with myeloma in 2012 at age 44. Within days, she left her job, ended her marriage, moved, and entered treatment. "To the extent I'm able, I want to prove that despite life's biggest challenges, it is possible to survive and come out stronger than ever," she says.
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