Dr. Jagannath on HDAC Inhibitors for Multiple Myeloma

Sundar Jagannath, MD, director of the Multiple Myeloma Program at the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City, discusses the clinical trials that combined histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors to bortezomib (Velcade) in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Vorinostat (Zolinza) is the first HDAC inhibitor to go through an international phase III trial and demonstrated an improvement in progression-free survival when combined with bortzezomib. Results from the trial were presented at the 2011 ASH meeting in San Diego. Another pan-DAC inhibitor named panobinostat has also been investigated in combination with bortezomib. Results for this agent showed similar efficacy to vorinostat.

HDAC inhibitors represent a new class of drugs for multiple myeloma patients. Expanding the treatment armamentarium by adding this new class of drugs provides more opportunities for patients. Jagannath explains that physicians are anxious to receive further results on the addition of these new agents.