SMC approves restricted use of daratumumab monotherapy for relapsed and refractory myeloma

The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved the use of daratumumab (Darzalex®) monotherapy as a fourth line treatment option for relapsed and refractory myeloma patients in Scotland, who have previously received treatment with a proteasome inhibitor and immunomodulatory drug. This decision is based on the pooled analysis of results from two clinical trials, MMY2002 and…

Complications of myeloma and its treatments

Plasma Cell Infiltration of the Kidney as a Manifestation of Myeloma: A Report of Three Cases. Kaur T et al. Indian J Nephrol. 2017 Sep-Oct;27(5):395-398. doi: 10.4103/ijn.IJN_215_16. Incidence of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Patients with Multiple Myeloma Undergoing Contrast-Enhanced Procedures. Crowley MP et al. Pathol Oncol Res. 2017 Sep 13. doi: 10.1007/s12253-017-0300-9. [Epub ahead of print]. Multiple Myeloma Presenting as Massive Amyloid Deposition in a Parathyroid…

Biology and genetics

Inhibition of the deubiquitinase USP5 leads to c-Maf protein degradation and myeloma cell apoptosis. Wang S et al. Cell Death Dis. 2017 Sep 21;8(9):e3058. doi: 10.1038/cddis.2017.450. The non-canonical poly(A) polymerase FAM46C acts as an onco-suppressor in multiple myeloma. Mroczek S et al. Nat Commun. 2017 Sep 20;8(1):619. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00578-5. Dihydroorotate dehydrogenase Inhibitors Target c-Myc and Arrest Melanoma, Myeloma and Lymphoma cells at S-phase. Dorasamy MS et al. J…

Myeloma UK funded research demonstrates impact of neutral tumour evolution on myeloma patient outcome

A study, funded by Myeloma UK, has demonstrated that neutral tumour evolution in myeloma is associated with poorer prognosis. Neutral evolution is the term used to describe evolution caused by random genetic mutations and are normally considered to be neither beneficial nor detrimental to survival. However, in this study, such tumours conferred a worse prognosis…

Lenalidomide maintenance treatment demonstrates significant overall survival benefit following HDT-ASCT

Meta-analysis of results from three randomised control trials has demonstrated that maintenance treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid®) following high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDT-ASCT) in newly diagnosed myeloma patients has a significant overall survival (OS) benefit. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the results of this meta-analysis, which used data pooled from the…