Tailoring Treatment for Frail Patients With Multiple Myeloma

Elizabeth (Betsy) O’Donnell, MD, director of Early Detection and Prevention of Malignant Conditions, and physician and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, discusses the importance of carrying out different strategies when treating patients with multiple myeloma who are older and frail.

At the 11th Annual Meeting of the Society of Hematologic Oncology, O’Donnell gave a presentation of personalizing care for frail patients with multiple myeloma. O’Donnell explains that despite having countless treatment options, frail patients with multiple myeloma tolerate treatment differently compared with fit patients.

Transcript:

0:07 | We're very fortunate within the field of multiple myeloma to have a broad armamentarium of therapeutics to help treat the disease. The approach to a frail patient is often dependent upon what their specific issues might be. And so really all treatments are available for frail patients. But sometimes we think about using them on tailor doses with tailor doses or on tailored schedules to make them more tolerable with a goal of being able to achieve consistent dosing and, and comparable outcomes to less frail patients.

0:45 | As you know, multiple myeloma is a disease of older individuals, and about a third of patients with multiple myeloma are over the age of 75. And I think there's a lot of variation between patients who are newly diagnosed and some of the symptoms that they might present with. Then, for patients who age with the disease, which we're fortunate to have so many good therapies, buy patients do get older as they're on therapy. And so, with our expanded appreciation of the role of frailty, we'll be better able to identify it and come up with, you know, treatment strategies, particularly upfront dose modifications, that will help patients benefit from our treatments.