Multiple Myeloma

Shaji Kumar, MD, professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses the safety profile and the survival benefits associated with venetoclax in the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, chief of Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the use of the triplet of daratumumab, bortezomib, and dexamethasone in the treatment of patients with relapsed myeloma.

Lenalidomide as a maintenance treatment for patients with newly diagnosed symptomatic multiple myeloma demonstrated encouraging phase III findings in the Myeloma X1 trial, which were presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting.

Graham Jackson, MD, PhD, Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University, discusses the benefits of maintenance therapy for patients with multiple myeloma.

Michael A. Thompson, MD, PhD, medical director, precision medicine, Vince Lombardi Cancer Clinic, Aurora Health Care, discusses some of the challenges facing the field of multiple myeloma.

Saad Z. Usmani, MD, Department of Hematologic Oncology and Blood Disorders, Levine Cancer Institute/Carolinas HealthCare System, discusses the importance of the CASTOR and POLLUX trials for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma.

Kevin R. Kelly, MD, PhD, associate professor of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, discusses a study examining racial disparities in patients with multiple myeloma.

C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, chief of Myeloma Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses unanswered questions following the results of the phase III POLLUX and CASTOR studies, which explored the addition of daratumumab (Darzalex) to lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone or bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone, respectively.

The use of stem cell transplantation has changed over the last few years, with the emergence of novel therapies and treatment strategies. But even with the FDA approvals of new agents for multiple myeloma and select lymphomas, transplant remains to be a curative and reliable strategy.

The landscape of multiple myeloma continues to shift with more drug approvals, but pivotal results out of the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting will likely alter it even further.

Shaji Kumar, MD, professor of Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses the rationale for investigating venetoclax as a treatment for patients with multiple myeloma.

The BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax (Venclexta) demonstrated activity in one-fifth of patients with heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.

The benefits of 2 FDA-approved daratumumab–based triplet regimens were sustained in long-term data from 2 pivotal phase III studies presented at the 2016 ASH Annual Meeting.

An analysis of c-MYC expression in relapsed myeloma identified subgroups of patients with improved response to the combination of an immunomodulator and a proteasome inhibitor.

Patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma had significant improvement in progression-free survival when treated with dual versus single autologous stem-cell transplant.

The addition of daratumumab to standard-of-care regimens tripled the increase in conversion to negative minimal residual disease status in the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma has seen significant treatment advances over the past decade. In 2015 alone, the FDA approved 5 new agents or regimens for previously treated patients.

The combination of elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone has excellent activity and is well-tolerated in the treatment of high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM), providing hope that it can delay or even halt progression to MM.

According to the results of the phase III StaMINA trial evaluating posttransplant therapy in multiple myeloma, a second a round of chemotherapy or stem cell transplant does not improve progression-free survival or overall survival compared with the current standard course of treatment alone.