New treatment combinations in RRMM patients

Prof Dr Claudio Cerchione, a haematologist at the Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori in Meldola, Italy, highlights the necessity for novel treatment combinations in lenalidomide-refractory MM patients. Belantamab mafodotin (belamaf), a B-cell maturation antigen targeted ADC has demonstrated clinical efficacy and a manageable safety profile, supporting its use in combination with standard of care therapies for RRMM patients.

The DREAMM-7 trial is a global, randomised, open-label, phase III study comparing the efficacy and safety of the belamaf plus bortezomib and dexamethasone (BVd) triplet against daratumumab, bortezomib and dexamethasone (DVd) in patients with RRMM who have received at least one prior line of therapy. The trial demonstrated a statistically significant PFS benefit for BVd as well as a strong and clinically meaningful OS benefit. Additionally, BVd resulted in a greater depth of response and a doubling of median DOR compared to DVd, while maintaining a manageable safety profile. These findings support BVd as a potential new standard of care for this patient population.

In the DREAMM-8 study, another belamaf combination, belamaf plus pomalidomide and dexamethasone (BPd) was evaluated against pomalidomide plus bortezomib and dexamethasone (PVd) in RRMM patients previously treated with lenalidomide. This study also demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful PFS benefit for BPd compared to PVd in RRMM patients. BPd led to deeper and more durable responses, showed a favourable trend in OS and had a manageable safety profile. These results indicate that BPd could serve as an effective treatment option for RRMM patients previously treated with lenalidomide, further advancing the therapeutic landscape for this challenging condition.