Site Editors
Shaji K. Kumar, MD
Prashant Kapoor, MD, FACP
Shaji K. Kumar, MD
Prashant Kapoor, MD, FACP
Posted: Thursday, June 8, 2023
Adding elotuzumab to a regimen of carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd) significantly improved the rate of “early and deep” measurable residual disease (MRD)-negative remission in transplant-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, according to a presentation from the 2023 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 8000). The work, presented by Stefan Knop, MD, of Wuerzburg University Medical Center, Germany, and colleagues, may represent the first study to provide evidence that the addition of this monoclonal antibody to a first-line setting may be beneficial.
The study enrolled and treated a total of 574 patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, at a median age of 60; 15.4% of patients had stage III disease, and 23.5% had high-risk cytogenetics. Patients were randomly assigned on a 1:1 basis to receive either six cycles of KRd or elotuzumab plus KRd. Following induction, all patients underwent restaging for MRD via next-generation flow cytometry of bone marrow samples.
The authors reported that 91.5% of patients completed all six cycles of treatment. MRD negativity was achieved in 49.8% of patients treated with elotuzumab and 35.4% of patients who were not. A total of 72.9% of patients treated with elotuzumab exhibited treatment-emergent adverse events of grade 3 or higher compared with 62.5% of patients who did not receive elotuzumab; the most common grade 3 events were febrile neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, pneumonia, and cardiac events.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit coi.asco.org.
JNCCN Spotlights
