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What is this summary about? This is a summary of a publication about Black participants of the GRIFFIN clinical study that was published in Blood Cancer Journal in April 2022. The GRIFFIN clinical study looked at the treatment combination of daratumumab plus a standard therapy for multiple myeloma (called RVd therapy, which stands for lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone) in adult patients who had not been treated before for multiple myeloma and so were considered to have newly diagnosed multiply myeloma. Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer of plasma cells. Based on the participants' age, medical history, and indicators of good general health, the participants in the GRIFFIN study were also eligible to receive autologous stem cell transplant as part of their therapy. This summary describes results for the Black participants of the GRIFFIN clinical study who received daratumumab plus RVd therapy (called D-RVd) to see if D-RVd therapy is better than RVd therapy at reducing the amount of multiple myeloma cancer cells in a patient's body. Why did the researchers evaluate the results for Black patients in the GRIFFIN study? Due to racial disparities leading to historically low representation of minority groups in clinical studies, optimal treatments are not defined for Black patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Since previously published results from the overall population in the GRIFFIN study indicated that D-RVd therapy was better than RVd therapy, the researchers wanted to determine if this was also the case among Black participants. What were the results? Out of 207 participants in the GRIFFIN study, 15% (32 participants) were Black and 78% (161 participants) were White. In both Black and White participants, D-RVd therapy reduced the amount of myeloma cancer cells more than RVd therapy. Additionally, D-RVd and RVd therapy had similar safety results for Black and White participants. What do the results mean? This analysis of GRIFFIN by race shows that Black people benefit from the daratumumab-containing D-RVd therapy as much as White people. Additionally, D-RVd therapy had similar safety results to RVd therapy for both Black and White people. Clinical Trial Registration: NCT02874742 ( ClinicalTrials.gov )

Patients with multiple myeloma are at increased risk of vascular thromboembolic events (VTEs). This post hoc analysis evaluated VTEs in the randomised phase 2 GRIFFIN study (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02874742) that investigated lenalidomide/bortezomib/dexamethasone (RVd) ± daratumumab (D). Patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma who were eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) received D-RVd/RVd induction, high-dose therapy and ASCT, D-RVd/RVd consolidation and up to 2 years of lenalidomide maintenance therapy ± D. VTE prophylaxis was recommended (at least aspirin, ≥162 mg daily) in accordance with International Myeloma Working Group guidelines. In the safety population (D-RVd, n = 99; RVd, n = 102), VTEs occurred in 10.1% of D-RVd patients and 15.7% of RVd patients; grade 2-4 VTEs occurred in 9.1% and 14.7%, respectively. Median time to the first onset of VTE was longer for D-RVd versus RVd patients (305 days vs 119 days). Anti-thrombosis prophylaxis use was similar between arms (D-RVd, 84.8% vs RVd, 83.3%); among patients with VTEs, prophylaxis use at time of first VTE onset was 60.0% for D-RVd and 68.8% for RVd. In summary, the addition of daratumumab to RVd did not increase the incidence of VTEs, but the cumulative VTE incidence was relatively high in this cohort and anti-thrombotic prophylaxis use was suboptimal.

ImportanceTreatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) with a quadruplet regimen consisting of a monoclonal antibody, proteasome inhibitor, immunomodulatory imide, and corticosteroid has been associated with improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with triplet regimens. The optimal quadruplet combination, and whether this obviates the need for frontline autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), remains unknown. We evaluated elotuzumab and weekly carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (Elo-KRd) without ASCT in NDMM.ObjectiveTo investigate the efficacy of Elo-KRd using a measurable residual disease (MRD)-adapted design in NDMM regardless of ASCT eligibility.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis multicenter, single-arm, phase 2 study enrolled patients between July 2017 and February 2021. Median follow-up was 29 months.InterventionsTwelve to 24 cycles of Elo-KRd; consecutive MRD-negative results at 10−6 by next-generation sequencing (NGS) after cycles 8 (C8) and 12 determined the duration of Elo-KRd. This was followed by Elo-Rd (no carfilzomib) maintenance therapy until disease progression.Main Outcomes and MeasuresThe primary end point was the rate of stringent complete response (sCR) and/or MRD-negativity (10−5) after C8 Elo-KRd. Secondary end points included safety, rate of response, MRD status, PFS, and overall survival (OS). As an exploratory analysis, MRD was assessed using liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (MS) on peripheral blood samples.ResultsForty-six patients were enrolled (median age 62 years, 11 [24%] aged >70 years). Overall, 32 (70%) were White, 6 (13%) were Black, 3 (6%) were more than 1 race, and 5 (11%) were of unknown race. Thirty-three (72%) were men and 13 (28%) were women. High-risk cytogenetic abnormalities were present in 22 (48%) patients. The rate of sCR and/or MRD-negativity after C8 was 26 of 45 (58%), meeting the predefined statistical threshold for efficacy. Responses deepened over time, with the MRD-negativity (10−5) rate increasing to 70% and MS-negativity rate increasing to 65%; concordance between MRD by NGS and MS increased over time. The most common (>10%) grade 3 or 4 adverse events were lung and nonpulmonary infections (13% and 11%, respectively). There was 1 grade 5 myocardial infarction. The estimated 3-year PFS was 72% overall and 92% for patients with MRD-negativity (10−5) at C8.Conclusions and RelevanceAn MRD-adapted design using elotuzumab and weekly KRd without ASCT showed a high rate of sCR and/or MRD-negativity and durable responses. This approach provides support for further evaluation of MRD-guided deescalation of therapy to decrease treatment exposure while sustaining deep responses.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02969837

The NCCN Guidelines for Multiple Myeloma provide recommendations for diagnosis, initial workup, treatment, follow-up, and supportive care for patients with various plasma cell neoplasms, including multiple myeloma. These NCCN Guidelines Insights highlight some of the important updates/changes specific to the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma in the 2022 version of the guidelines.

Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel), a novel chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy targeting B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA), has recently gained approval by the US FDA for relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) after multicenter trials have demonstrated unprecedented results in this difficult-to-treat subgroup of patients. As the first CAR T-cell product approved for myeloma, ide-cel is poised to become a practice-changing treatment option. This first-in-class therapeutic offers hope for more durable remissions, as well as better quality of life, following a single infusion in a group of patients that previously had little hope. This paper reviews the ide-cel product in terms of design, pharmacology, efficacy and toxicity as described in studies reported to date.Lay abstract Idecabtagene vicleucel (ide-cel) is a novel therapy using a patient’s own T cells that have been genetically modified to force them to recognize a target antigen called BCMA that is present on myeloma and plasma cells but not on other normal cells. This therapy, known as CAR T-cell therapy, has recently gained approval by the US FDA for relapsed multiple myeloma after clinical trials have demonstrated unprecedented results in this difficult-to-treat subgroup of patients who have failed at least four prior lines of therapy. As the first CAR T-cell product approved for myeloma, ide-cel is poised to become a practice-changing treatment option. This first-in-class therapeutic offers hope for more durable remissions, as well as a longer and better quality of life, following a single infusion. This paper reviews the ide-cel product in terms of design, pharmacology, efficacy and toxicity as described in studies reported to date.

The overall survival (OS) has improved significantly in multiple myeloma (MM) over the last decade with use of proteasome inhibitor and immunomodulatory drug-based combinations, followed by high-dose melphalan and autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-HSCT) and subsequent maintenance therapies in eligible newly diagnosed patients. However, clinical trials employing auto-HSCT followed by lenalidomide maintenance have shown an increased risk of second primary malignancies (SPM), including second hematological malignancies (SHM). We evaluated the impact of SPM and SHM on progression-free survival (PFS) and OS in MM patients following auto-HSCT using CIBMTR registry data. Adult MM patients who underwent first auto-HSCT in the United States with melphalan conditioning regimen from 2011 to 2018 and received maintenance therapy were included (n=3,948). At a median follow up of 37 months, 175 (4%) patients developed SPM, including 112 (64%) solid, 36 (20%) myeloid, 24 (14%) SHM, not otherwise specified, and 3 (2%) lymphoid malignancies. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that SPM and SHM were associated with an inferior PFS (HR 2.62, P

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In the phase 3 OPTIMISMM trial, pomalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (PVd) demonstrated superior efficacy vs bortezomib and dexamethasone (Vd) in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma previously treated with lenalidomide, including those refractory to lenalidomide. This analysis evaluated outcomes in patients at first relapse (N = 226) by lenalidomide-refractory status, prior bortezomib exposure, and prior stem cell transplant (SCT). Second-line PVd significantly improved PFS vs Vd in lenalidomide-refractory (17.8 vs 9.5 months; P = 0.0276) and lenalidomide-nonrefractory patients (22.0 vs 12.0 months; P = 0.0491), patients with prior bortezomib (17.8 vs 12.0 months; P = 0.0068), and patients with (22.0 vs 13.8 months; P = 0.0241) or without (16.5 vs 9.5 months; P = 0.0454) prior SCT. In patients without prior bortezomib, median PFS was 20.7 vs 9.5 months (P = 0.1055). Significant improvement in overall response rate was also observed with PVd vs Vd in lenalidomide-refractory (85.9% vs 50.8%; P P

BACKGROUND: In patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the effect of adding autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) to triplet therapy (lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone [RVD]), followed by lenalidomide maintenance therapy until disease progression, is unknown. METHODS: In this phase 3 trial, adults (18 to 65 years of age) with symptomatic myeloma received one cycle of RVD. We randomly assigned these patients, in a 1:1 ratio, to receive two additional RVD cycles plus stem-cell mobilization, followed by either five additional RVD cycles (the RVD-alone group) or high-dose melphalan plus ASCT followed by two additional RVD cycles (the transplantation group). Both groups received lenalidomide until disease progression, unacceptable side effects, or both. The primary end point was progression-free survival. RESULTS: Among 357 patients in the RVD-alone group and 365 in the transplantation group, at a median follow-up of 76.0 months, 328 events of disease progression or death occurred; the risk was 53% higher in the RVD-alone group than in the transplantation group (hazard ratio, 1.53; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.23 to 1.91; P

INTRODUCTION: Clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) is defined by the expansion of progeny derived from hematopoietic stem cells that have acquired somatic mutations at a VAF greater than 2%. CHIP manifests in 10% of patients older than 65 and is associated with an increased risk of progression to malignancies such as the MDS or AML. Although the risk factors for developing CHIP remain incompletely defined, they include prior exposure to chemotherapy and a history of smoking. Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is characterized by the abnormal growth of clonal plasma cells in the bone marrow and carries a risk of 1% for progression to multiple myeloma (MM) per year. Like CHIP, it becomes more prevalent with age and is associated with smoking. Additionally, patients with MM have demonstrated an increased risk for malignancies. Thus, an examination for a correlation between CHIP and MGUS promises to reveal a link between these two pre-malignant conditions. A recent study did not demonstrate such an association, but this study was performed in a very elderly population and may not be applicable to younger patients. In this study, we aim to assess the relationship between CHIP and MGUS in a population-based cohort of MGUS patients seen at UT Southwestern Medical Center. METHODS: To evaluate an association between CHIP and MGUS, we collected bone marrow samples from 37 patients diagnosed with MGUS. We employed a hybridization capture-based next generation sequencing assay in order to detect CHIP. We identified 24 genes known to cause CHIP in adults. We also evaluated patients risk for developing MM after having been diagnosed with CHIP. RESULTS: The mean age was 68, (range 26-92). 22 patients were white, 8 were black and 3 Hispanic/Latino. 17 patients had IgG, 7 had IgA, 3 had IgM, 3 had biclonal gammopathy and 7 light-chain MGUS. We identified 18 mutations to validate the presence of CHIP in 10 (27%) patients, with the most frequent being DNMT3A (7 patients) and TET2 (5 patients). Other common mutations noted were PPM1D (2), GND1 (1), SF3B1 (1), ASXL1 in (1), and NRAS in (1). 3 out of the 10 patients harbored 2 mutations and 1 harbored 4 mutations. History of chemotherapy (n=6) and smoking (n=14) was taken into consideration to determine the relative risk of patients with MGUS developing CHIP. We found that those who had a prior history of smoking and chemotherapy displayed a higher risk of CHIP. CONCLUSION: There was no significant association between CHIP and MM progression. Our analysis showed 1 patient with CHIP progression and 2 without CHIP progression. Because the rates of CHIP and MGUS are positively correlated with characteristics like aging and a history of smoking, we expected to see high rates of CHIP in patients within our cohort. However, our data suggests that CHIP is frequent (27%) in MGUS patients, but larger future cohorts need to be evaluated to validate this association. Citation Format: Vianey Quaney, Benjamin Kroger, Aishwarya Sannareddy, Umar Khan, Fatma Kalkan, Robert H. Collins, Yazan F. Madanat, Madhuri Vusirikala, Yi Huang, Farrukh T. Awan, Praveen Ramakrishnan, Aimaz Afrough, Larry D. Anderson, Stephen S. Chung, Gurbakhash Kaur. Prevalence of clonal hematopoiesis in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 5925.

Background TRC102 inhibits base excision repair by binding abasic sites and preventing AP endonuclease processing; it potentiates the activity of alkylating agents, including temozolomide, in murine models. In published xenograft studies, TRC102 enhanced the antitumor effect of temozolomide regardless of cell line genetic characteristics, e.g., O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), mismatch repair (MMR), or p53 status. Materials and methods We conducted a phase 1 trial of TRC102 with temozolomide given orally on days 1-5 of 28-day cycles in adult patients with refractory solid tumors that had progressed on standard therapy. Tumor induction of nuclear biomarkers of DNA damage response (DDR) γH2AX, pNBs1, and Rad51 was assessed in the context of MGMT and MMR protein expression for expansion cohort patients. Results Fifty-two patients were enrolled (37 escalation, 15 expansion) with 51 evaluable for response. The recommended phase 2 dose was 125 mg TRC102, 150 mg/m2 temozolomide QDx5. Common adverse events (grade 3/4) included anemia (19%), lymphopenia (12%), and neutropenia (10%). Four patients achieved partial responses (1 non-small cell lung cancer, 2 granulosa cell ovarian cancer, and 1 colon cancer) and 13 patients had a best response of stable disease. Retrospective analysis of 15 expansion cohort patients did not demonstrate a correlation between low tumor MGMT expression and patient response, but treatment induced nuclear Rad51 responses in 6 of 12 patients. Conclusions The combination of TRC 102 with temozolomide is active, with 4 of 51 patients experiencing a partial response and 13 of 51 experiencing stable disease, and the side effect profile is manageable.

Objectives Autologous stem cell transplant with lenalidomide maintenance therapy has greatly improved the relapse-free and overall survival rates of patients with multiple myeloma but also has been associated with an increased risk of secondary B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B-ALL). Methods We report a comprehensive review of the clinicopathologic features of 2 patients with multiple myeloma who developed secondary B-ALL during lenalidomide maintenance. Results Our observations showed that the disease may initially present with subtle clinical, morphologic, and flow-cytometric findings. The flow cytometry findings in such cases may initially mimic an expansion of hematogones with minimal immunophenotypic variation. Both patients achieved complete remission of secondary B-ALL after standard chemotherapy; however, one patient continues to have minimal residual disease, and the other experienced relapse. Next-generation sequencing of the relapse specimen showed numerous, complex abnormalities, suggesting clonal evolution. Conclusions Our findings suggest the need for increased awareness and further study of this unique form of secondary B-ALL.

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) inevitably relapse on initial treatment regimens, and novel combination therapies are needed. Ibrutinib is a first‐in‐class, once‐daily inhibitor of Bruton's tyrosine kinase, an enzyme implicated in growth and survival of MM cells. Preclinical data suggest supra‐additivity or synergy between ibrutinib and proteasome inhibitors (PIs) against MM. This phase 1/2b study evaluated the efficacy and safety of ibrutinib plus the PI carfilzomib and dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory MM (RRMM). In this final analysis, we report results in patients who received the recommended phase 2 dose (RP2D; ibrutinib 840 mg and carfilzomib 36 mg/m2 with dexamethasone), which was determined in phase 1. The primary efficacy endpoint was overall response rate (ORR). Fifty‐nine patients with RRMM received the RP2D (18 in phase 1 and 41 in phase 2b). These patients had received a median of three prior lines of therapy; 69% were refractory to bortezomib, and 90% were refractory to their last treatment. ORR in the RP2D population was 71% (stringent complete response and complete response: 3% each). Median duration of clinical benefit and median duration of response were both 6.5 months. Median progression‐free survival (PFS) was 7.4 months, and median overall survival (OS) was 35.9 months. High‐risk patients had comparable ORR and median PFS (67% and 7.7 months, respectively) to non–high‐risk patients, whose ORR was 73% and median PFS was 6.9 months, whereas median OS in high‐risk patients was 13.9 months and not reached in non–high‐risk patients. The most common grade ≥3 hematologic treatment‐emergent adverse events (TEAEs) were anemia and thrombocytopenia (17% each); the most common grade ≥3 non‐hematologic TEAE was hypertension (19%). In patients with RRMM treated with multiple previous lines of therapy, ibrutinib plus carfilzomib demonstrated anticancer activity within the expected efficacy range. No new safety signals were identified and the combination was well‐tolerated.