Comparing Therapies for Transplant-Ineligible Patients Newly Diagnosed With Myeloma

By: Joshua D. Madera, MD
Posted: Tuesday, July 9, 2024

The addition of the anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody isatuximab to the standard-of-care combination therapy regimen of bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (VRd) may improve clinical outcomes for patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma, according to the results of the phase III IMROZ trial, presented at the 2024 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting (Abstract 7500). The sustained response to treatment in addition to its favorable safety profile seem to support isatuximab plus VRd as a new standard of care for this patient population, according to Thierry Facon, MD, of the University of Lille, France, and colleagues.

A total of 446 patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma were recruited for the study. All patients were ineligible for treatment with transplantation. Patients were randomly assigned to receive treatment with isatuximab plus VRd (n = 265) or VRd alone (n = 181).

The median progression-free survival for patients treated with isatuximab plus VRd has not been reached, and it was 54.3 months for patients treated with VRd alone (hazard ratio = 0.596). The authors anticipate the median progression-free survival to reach approximately 90 months for patients treated with isatuximab plus VRd. In addition, complete responses to treatment were increased with the addition of isatuximab vs without it (74.7% vs 64.1%). Furthermore, treatment with isatuximab plus VRd led to increased and sustained undetectable measurable residual disease (46.8%) compared with VRd alone (24.3%). Moreover, comparable rates of exposure-adjusted grade 5 treatment-emergent adverse events were noted for patients treated in both arms.

Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit coi.asco.org.

2024 ASCO Annual Meeting

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