Combination Salvage Therapy for Multiple Myeloma Induces “Impressive” Response Rate

A study published in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia evaluated the safety and efficacy of VD-PACE (bortezomib, dexamethasone, cisplatin, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and etoposide) in combination with an immunomodulatory agent (IMiD) in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM) and found that this was an effective and tolerable salvage therapy.

Researchers retrospectively analyzed VD-PACE plus an IMiD in 30 patients with relapsed/refractory MM who received one or more cycles of this treatment between January 2012 and April 2019.

Most patients (n=26; 86%) were double refractory to protease inhibitors and IMiDs, and patients had received a median of three lines prior of therapy.

The overall response rate was 67.7%, including 13% of patients who experienced complete remission or better and 13% who experienced a very-good partial response. The researchers called the response “impressive” for this pretreated population.

Median progression-free survival was 11 months, and median overall survival was 26 months. The most common grade ≥3 adverse events were hematologic events, which the researchers called “manageable.”