According to a new study published in the journal Blood, researchers have found that pomalidomide plus low dose dexamethasone is active and well tolerated in patients with end stage relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and adverse cytogenetics.
A previous study showed that the drug combination could be safely administered to patients with end stage relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma, but researchers observed a shorter median progression-free survival and overall survival among those with deletion 17p and translocation (4;14).
Therefore, researchers sought to investigate whether patients with adverse cytogenetics would obtain greater benefit if they were to receive pomalidomide plus dexamethasone earlier than in the previous study.
For this study, 50 patients with a median age of 63 years received the drug combination. Results showed that time to progression was 7.3 months for those with t(4;14) and 2.8 months for those with del(17p). In addition, duration of response was 8.3 and 2.4 months for t(4;14) and del(17p), respectively, and the objective response rate was 32% compared with 15%, respectively.
Overall survival was also prolonged, mostly in patients with t(4;14). The researchers note that future studies are warranted to better understand the mechanism of pomalidomide-dexamethasone activity in those with del(17p).
Pomalidomide plus low dose dexamethasone is active and well tolerated in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma.
The authors sought to determine whether MM with adverse cytogenetic would benefit greater to Pom-Dex if exposed earlier in the multicenter IFM 2010-02. Pomalidomide plus low dose dexamethasone, a doublet IMiDs-based regimen, is active and well tolerated in adverse cytogenetic patients with early RRMM, particularly with del(17p), characterized with high and rapid development of a refractoriness state, and known for their poor prognosis.
From Mdlinx
