Prof. Dytfeld: Thank you for an excellent first-line treatment for myeloma. We are waiting for a strong second one
Today, the standard of first-line myeloma treatment is very good, it is at European level, for which we are grateful. The problem today is treatment in second and subsequent lines. Currently, we can offer these patients suboptimal, dual-drug therapy – carfilzomib with dexamethasone. One of the greatest needs is to strengthen this therapy with daratumumab – noted prof. during the Visionaries of Health 2024 conference. Dominik Dytfeld, president of the Polish Myeloma Consortium.
Prof. Dytfled emphasized that today medicine is unable to cure myeloma, because even to the best treatment, resistance appears at some point and the patient must be offered other therapeutic regimens based on other drugs. – Myeloma is a multi-line disease and any therapy, even the best one, will have to be replaced by another one. Thanks to the fact that we have further lines of treatment, we can offer patients a long life – noted Prof. Dytfeld.
He pointed out that many modern treatment regimens, including those already used in the first line, use lenalidomide. – We are very happy about it, because it is a very good medicine. However, if resistance to it appears, we must use regimens that do not contain it, he emphasized.
Currently, in the second line, patients with resistance to lenalidomide can receive the carfilzomib plus dexamethasone (Kd) regimen. – This is a suboptimal scheme; Triple drug regimens such as KdD, i.e. with the addition of daratumumab, are more effective. It was registered on the basis of the CANDOR study; the median progression-free survival in patients receiving such treatment increased from 15 months to 28 months in the three-drug arm. This was almost a doubling of progression-free time – noted Prof. Dytfeld.
– One of the greatest unmet needs for myeloma patients today is the enhancement of Kd therapy with daratumumab. This is the greatest need today: protection of first-line patients previously treated with lenalidomide. Adding daratumumab to double-drug therapy increases the strength of the treatment – said Prof. Dytfeld.
Enhancing kD therapy with an anti-CD38 antibody is the first-line therapy in the recommendations of the International Group for Plasma Cellular Myeloma and the Polish Myeloma Group – for patients with resistant multiple myeloma. Prof. Dytfeld also emphasized that another important need is to protect patients in subsequent lines, especially the fourth and fifth lines, because in the drug program, modern therapies are exhausted after the fourth line.
Prof. Dytfeld also pointed out that thanks to modern treatment, multiple myeloma is increasingly a chronic disease and patients lead active lives. – Many patients are treated effectively, they can function normally, often play sports and be active. On behalf of the Carita Foundation, I would like to invite you to the “Destroy Myeloma” Rally, which has already taken place three times, and I hope that there will be another one this year. We show that you can live with this disease, but the condition is good access to medicines at every stage of the disease – said Prof. Dytfeld.
