Dr. Yee on Treating Patients with Relapsed Disease in Multiple Myeloma

Andrew Yee, MD, clinical director, Center for Multiple Myeloma, Mass General Brigham, Massachusetts General Hospital, assistant professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, discusses treating patients with relapsed disease in multiple myeloma.

When treating patients with relapsed disease, it is important to consider how long their response to their initial therapy lasted, Yee says. Moreover, the type of relapse is important to account for, as some patients may have a biochemical relapse as compared with a relapse that manifests as pain from lytic bone disease or fatigue from cytopenias or renal dysfunction, Yee explains.

A more intensive approach may be necessary for patients with symptomatic relapses compared with a biochemical relapses, Yee continues. Overall, oncologists should utilize their best treatments first, rather than save them for relapse, Yee concludes.