ASH: Daratumumab beneficial for patients with multiple myeloma

For transplantation-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the addition of subcutaneous daratumumab combined with bortezomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone induction and consolidation therapy and with lenalidomide maintenance therapy (D-VRd) improves progression-free survival. These findings were published online Dec. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, held from Dec. 9 to 12 in San Diego.

Pieter Sonneveld, M.D., Ph.D., from the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and colleagues randomly assigned 709 transplantation-eligible patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma to receive D-VRd induction and consolidation therapy and lenalidomide maintenance therapy (D-VRd group) or VRd induction and consolidation therapy and lenalidomide maintenance therapy alone (VRd group) in a phase 3 trial.

The researchers found that the risk for disease progression or death was lower in the D-VRd group than in the VRd group at a median follow-up of 47.5 months. The estimated percentage of patients with progression-free survival was 84.3 and 67.7 percent in the D-VRd and VRd groups, respectively, at 48 months (hazard ratio for disease progression or death, 0.42). The D-VRd group had a higher percentage of patients with a complete response or better (87.9 versus 70.1 percent) and a higher percentage of patients with minimal residual disease-negative status (75.2 versus 47.5 percent).

"These results further strengthen the existing evidence supporting the use of daratumumab in combination regimens for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma," the authors write.

The study was partially funded by Janssen Research and Development, the manufacturer of daratumumab.

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