Kumar Explains Current Treatments and Unmet Needs in Multiple Myeloma

Shaji Kumar, MD, hematologist at the Mayo Clinic and chair of the Plasma Cell Disorders Scientific Committee at the American Society of Hematology, discusses the current treatment options and unmet needs for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

The current standard treatment for patients with multiple myeloma is a combination of lenalidomide (Revlimid) and dexamethasone (Ozurdex) with or without bortezomib (Velcade; VRd). Further, patients who are transplant eligible can receive VRd followed by 1 or 2 transplants and maintenance therapy. Patients who are transplant ineligible continue treatment until progression.

Though there have been major improvements in the treatment for this patient population over recent years, Kumar explains that most patients will still relapse, leaving a need to further understand the efficacy and duration of standard myeloma treatments.

Transcription:

0:08 | The combinations of either a proteasome inhibitor, you have to only 1 immunomodulatory drug, lenalidomide for the newly diagnosed setting, but you also have pomalidomide for the relapsed setting. And we have a couple of monoclonal antibodies, 2 of which are targeting CD38. And there are obviously in the relapse setting, multiple different treatment options that are emerging at this point.

0: 40 | The key questions for the newly diagnosed patient can be to get deeper responses that can be given over shorter duration therapies, that people will have treatment-free intervals between different treatments. I think the other area that really needs to be further studied is what is the role of some of the newer immunotherapeutic agents in the newly diagnosed setting? Is there a role for chimeric antigen receptor T cells or bio specifics? Especially maybe for the high-risk patients in the newly diagnosed setting.