The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has approved the use of daratumumab (Darzalex®) monotherapy as a treatment for relapsed and refractory myeloma patients. This treatment will be made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to patients in England and Wales who have received 3 prior treatments, including a proteasome inhibitor and…
Results from the Phase III TEAMM (Tackling EArly Morbidity and Mortality in Myeloma) trial have recently been reported at the American Society of Haematology 2017 conference. This study assessed the benefit of levofloxacin antibiotic prophylaxis and its effect on healthcare associated infections in newly diagnosed myeloma patients. The results show that levofloxacin prophylaxis had a…
A meta-analysis conducted by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania has shown that treatment with carfilzomib (Kyprolis®) is associated with a higher incidence of cardiovascular events in myeloma patients. The study found that 18.1% of myeloma patients receiving carfilzomib experienced cardiovascular events, including hypertension, cardiac arrest, cardiac failure and arrhythmias, compared to only 3.8% of…
The National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended the use of ixazomib (Ninlaro®) in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone for relapsed and refractory myeloma patients. This treatment will be made available through the Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) to patients in England and Wales who have received 2 or 3 prior treatments. This…
Results from a Myeloma UK study, in which myeloma patients participated in a survey to determine individual preferences for treatment outcomes, have been published in The Oncologist. The survey, which was based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and swing weighting, asked patients to state their preference for the following outcomes of treatment; an increase in…
Amgen has announced that its Phase III trial, ARROW, has achieved its primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma. The study compared the effect of giving patients a higher dose of carfilzomib (Kyprolis®) once a week, compared to a smaller dose twice a week, together with dexamethasone. The…
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…
A study, funded by Myeloma UK, has identified a link between overexpression of EZH2 and high risk myeloma. The results, published in the Blood Cancer Journal, demonstrate that patients with high levels of EZH2 expression had shorter overall survival and response to treatment compared to patients with low levels of EZH2 expression, regardless of treatment.…
A recent study, conducted by the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), has demonstrated the benefits of whole body computed tomography (WBCT) compared to conventional skeletal survey (CSS) for identifying osteolytic lesions in myeloma. The study, published in Blood Cancer Journal, found that WBCT is more sensitive than CSS in detecting skeletal lesions, with 20-25% patients…
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…