2024-07-17 20:42:07
(ANSA) – ROME, JULY 17 – A new combination of drugs – a triplet – could change the standard of care for patients with progressive multiple myeloma who have already received a first-line therapy, improving survival by almost two years compared to the current standard of treatment. This was revealed by the multicenter phase 3 Dreamm-7 study, by the Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori Dino Amadori Irst Irccs in Meldola (FC), published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which involved 494 patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
Treatment with the drug-conjugated antibody belantamab mafodotin, in combination with bortezomib and dexamethasone, has in fact shown a greater survival for patients without disease progression of 36.6 months compared to 13.4 months with daratumumab, bortezomib and dexamethasone. Overall survival also improved with the experimental therapy, with 84% of patients alive at 18 months compared to 73%. “We believed in the value of belantamab mafodotin, the first anti-BCMA drug-conjugated monoclonal antibody in blood tumors – says Claudio Cerchione, medical director and researcher of the Hematology Unit of the IRST Dino Amadori and author of the study -. The efficacy of the molecule is demonstrated by a progression-free survival of almost 2 years longer, with a 59% reduction in the risk of progression or death.
The tolerability profile of the combination also guarantees a good quality of life”. Every year, in Italy, there are an estimated 5,800 new cases of multiple myeloma, a blood cancer caused by the uncontrolled growth of plasma cells responsible for the production of antibodies. “The most frequent symptoms are localized bone pain, sometimes accompanied by spontaneous fractures, asthenia, anemia – continues Cerchione -.
Early diagnosis is difficult, because many patients do not show symptoms until the advanced stage or show general symptoms. In this sense, research efforts are significant to identify an early phase of the disease, devoid of symptoms, known as ‘smoldering’ myeloma, still indolent but with a high probability of negative development.
In high-risk patients, new approaches such as preventive immunotherapy are being tested, precisely to delay the progression of the disease”. (ANSA).
2024-07-17 20:42:07