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CAR-T therapy outperformed standard of care (SOC) as a second-line treatment, with progression-free survival (PFS) not reached in the CAR-T group compared to 6.2 months in the SOC group. Despite two-thirds of patients crossing over, CAR-T still demonstrated a three-year overall survival rate of 63%, versus 52% with SOC. These are impressive and durable results. The SOC regimen consisted of three cycles of chemoimmunotherapy followed by high-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant. This positions CAR-T as a viable second-line option for eligible patients.

Guess who’s coming as an option beyond AI (OBI)? Yes—this study showed no safety concerns and demonstrated comparable efficacy.

The AQUILA trial compared daratumumab to active monitoring in high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma, demonstrating a significant improvement in progression-free survival (PFS) (84% vs 54% at 48 months) and a trend toward better overall survival (OS) (94% vs 86% at 48 months). Dara also achieved a higher rate of deep responses, with 60% of patients reaching minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity compared to none in the monitoring arm. This looks like a game-changer to delay progression, but we’ll need to weigh the toxicity profile carefully in practice and wait for survival data.

Is the need to transplant declining? Salvage autologous transplant vs lenalidomide/dexamethasone offers no significant survival benefit in RRMM. Patients who relapsed were treated with high-dose chemotherapy followed by maintenance lenalidomide vs dexamethasone and lenalidomide and progression-free survival (PFS) was 20 vs 19 months.

Daratumumab continued to demonstrate single-agent clinical activity in patients with intermediate- or high-risk smoldering myeloma. No new safety concerns were observed after extended follow-up of approximately seven years, highlighting the tolerability of daratumumab. Will need phase III trials.

Direct comparison of Dara+len vs. len maintenance for those with +MMR after Auto-HSCT. MRD-neg conversion rates were higher in the combo arm. This is likely going to continue gaining traction in this group of patients.

Retrospective assessment of the SWOG0777 and SWOG 1211 studies showing that dose reductions in dexamethasone did not affect outcomes. Nice to see this does not have a negative impact, as I have been doing this for years in my elderly patients who would not tolerate the ultra-high dose steroids used in these trials.

MRD at year 1 can be prognostic in pt who had AutoBMT followed by maintenance linolidomide. Please use MRD wisely … it can be expensive.