Myeloma News From ASH 2018: Groundbreaking Data for the Future of Myeloma

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Lee Swanson:

Hello.  I'm Lee Swanson at the American Society of Hematology conference in San Diego, and I'm here with Dr. Faith Davies from the Myeloma Institute at the University of Arkansas.  Do I have that correct?  

Dr. Davies:

You do indeed.  Hi, Lee.  

Lee Swanson:

So what is exciting news here for you from this conference?  

Dr. Davies:

It's actually been so busy it's difficult to know where to start.  So we've heard about a lot of new drugs for myeloma.  We've heard a lot about new combinations and new places to use those drugs.  So, for instance, for the newly diagnosed patients we've been hearing about how good combinations including daratumumab (Darzalex) are.  Previously that was a drug used for the relapsed setting, and now we're getting really nice data showing how effective it is for newly diagnosed patients. 

We've been hearing about new combinations that we can maybe use for newly diagnosed patients, and how that by combining either maybe three drugs or four drugs we can get a tolerable regime, but also one that induces good responses.   

And then we've been hearing a lot about new maintenance drugs.  So previously many patients had been receiving lenalidomide (Revlimid) maintenance, but now there's an oral proteasome inhibitor which has shown to be good for myeloma as well.  

And then in the relapsed setting lots of new drugs have been discussed.  Many of them I think are going to be groundbreaking, such as the CAR-T cells, but there have also been drugs that maybe we can use in specific groups of patients which seem to be really effective.  

Lee Swanson:

One thing, of course, patients want to know is is this the time to talk to their doctor about some of these things, or are they still kind of off on the horizon?  

Dr. Davies:

Okay.  So, many of the things we've heard about this last few days are kind of on a two-month or three-month horizon in the fact that it's groundbreaking data that needs to be submitted to the FDA to get approvals, and so I think February-March time we should actually get some approvals, and they'll be used. And so that would be a good time to start talking it over.  

Many of the others are still in the clinical trial phase, and so if patients want to get involved with some of those, again they need to chat with their doctor and get connected up with a site that may have some of those drugs.  But I don't think anything we've spoken about over the last few days is years away.  It's all in the very near future, which is exciting.  

Lee Swanson:

That's terrific.  One of the things you're involved with is a study on survival rates.  What do we know there?  

Dr. Davies:

So what we can really see is the improvement in survival of patients, and that's really because we've been getting new drugs. But we've also been learning about how to manage toxicities, how to improve quality of life, and how to use these drugs so that we can move from one combination to another combination, how important maintenance in ongoing treatment is, and those survivals are just dramatically improving.  

One of the studies that was introduced today actually for patients who are maybe slightly older and which maybe are not able to use transplantation, with the drugs that those patients have been receiving, including antibodies, their survivals now are getting up to what we might expect for the younger patients who are having transplantation.  

Lee Swanson:

So are we looking at instances of individualized treatment more for patients?  Is this going to become the norm?   

Dr. Davies:

I think so, yes.  And it may be that we individualizing therapy based on patients' other health issues, such as whether they're prone to blood clots or whether they have heart issues and so on, or there's also data here about individualizing patients' treatment based on some of their genetic or molecular characteristics.  So we've been hearing a lot of data about how one of the new drugs called venetoclax (Venclexta) is particularly good for a group of patients with an abnormality called an (11;14) translocation.  

I guess one of the groups that we have been hearing about that we still need a lot of work in there is the high-risk patients, and that's still very challenging, and that's really come across in quite a lot of the talks as well.  So that's an area that we need to concentrate on.  We're very hopeful that the new treatments we're going to use are going to be good for those patients, but it's still an area of unmet need. 

Lee Swanson:

Well, you're right. There is a lot going on here this week, isn't there?  

Dr. Davies:

Yes.  I mean it's exciting.  A bit of me is looking forward to going back home again just to have a rest, but just so see things, as you said, that are actually going to be things that are affecting patients now is just great news.  

Lee Swanson:

Thank you very much for being here today and taking the time to talk with us.  

Dr. Davies:

No, thank you very much. 

Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Power are not necessarily the views of our sponsors, contributors, partners or Patient Power. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.