smoldering myeloma
DESCRIPTION
Should we treat smoldering myeloma? Is the data convincing? Yes: Elisabet Manasanch, MD No: Prantar Chakarbarty, MDTRANSCRIPT
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Should we treat smoldering myeloma?
Is the data convincing?
Prof. Prantar Chakrabarti
Head
Department of Haematology
NRS Medical College, Kolkata, India
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•What is smoldering myeloma ?
•Why do we call it “smoldering” ?
• Is it a homogenous group ?
•Why do we want to start treating it ?
•Who benefits from the treatment ?
•At what cost ?
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ACTIVE MULTIPLE MYELOMA AND ITS PRECURSOR
N Engl J Med 2007;356:2582-90.
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Diagnostic Criteria of Smoldering Myeloma in Different Reported Series
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IMWG CONSENSUS CRITERIA-2010
Leukemia (2010) 24, 1121–1127
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Why do we call it “smoldering” ?
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• 10% average annual risk of progression to MM for
the first 5 years after diagnosis,
• Decreasing to 3% annually for the following 5
years
• Becoming the same 1% annual rate of progression
as MGUS thereafterKyle RA, et al. Clinical course and prognosis of smoldering (asymptomatic) multiple myeloma. N Engl J Med 2007;
356:2582-90.
• Approximately 15% of all
cases with newly diagnosed
multiple myeloma
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J Clin Oncol 28:690-697; 2009
IS IT UNIFORM?IS IT UNIFORM?
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A. BMPC >10%; M band > 30gm/LB. BMPC >10%; M protein > 30gm /L and involved/uninvolved FLC >/= 8C. Involved / uninvolved FLC >/= 100D. Abnormal Immunophenotype with immunoparesisE. > 1 focal bone lesion on whole body MRIF. Based on FISH reportG. High risk interphase FISH and high tumor burden (M protein > 20 g/L)H. M protein > 30 g/L; abnormal FLC; heavy chain IgA or IgM
RISK FACTOR FOR PROGRESSION FROM SMM TO MYELOMA
RISK FACTOR FOR PROGRESSION FROM SMM TO MYELOMA
BLOOD 2013
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“It is critical to recognize that in a disease such
as multiple myeloma, in which defining
criteria rely on the presence or absence of
end-organ damage, diagnosis is only as good
as the tools and technology able to detect
end-organ damage”
-- Ola Landgren
How good are our tools ?
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• Based on the presence of end-organ damage, including bone
lytic lesions
• Radiological skeletal survey used for the initial workup
• But, 30% to 50% of the bone mass has to be destroyed
before conventional radiography is able to detect the
damage
• New imaging techniques allow detection of myeloma
manifestations earlier than conventional radiography
Trying to define multiple myeloma
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• Hillengass et al reported recently that 30% of patients with SMM have BM
infiltration patterns similar to multiple myeloma when using whole body
MRI.
• So these patients should have been classified as Multiple myeloma, and
should get benefit of earlier therapy.
• SMM patients with > 1 focal BM lesion have a significantly (P <0.001)
shorter time (median time to progression: 13 months vs not reached) to
develop multiple myeloma
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Seminars in Hematology, Vol 48, No 1, January 2011
• In SMM, MRI of the spine and pelvis can detect occult lesions
• Between 30% and 50% of patients with SMM have an abnormal
MRI
• Diffusion- weighted whole-body MRI (DWI-MRI), dynamic contrast-
enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI), may be able to identify myelomatous
bony involvement at an earlier stage.
• So improved diagnostic technique can enhance our diagnosis of
symptomatic multiple myeloma, earlier than conventional imaging
methods
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• Renal impairment is a defining criterion of MM.
• Aside from a serum creatinine 2.0 mg/dL attributable to the plasma cell
dyscrasia, the current guidelines do not define the renal disease any
further.
Acute tubular necrosis resulting from hypercalcemia or nonsteroidal anti-
inflammatory drugs,
Monoclonal immunoglobulin deposition disease
Light chain proximal tubulopathy
• So organ damage apart from CRAB may indicate symptomatic MM
Is CRAB enough ?
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• In one recent study, among patients with
symptomatic MM, 74% presented with CRAB
symptoms, 20% presented with non-CRAB
manifestations, and 6% had both clinical features.
• Should we use only CRAB criteria to determine MM ?
Time to modify CRAB ?
Talamo G, et al: Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2010;10(6)
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“The definition of myeloma-related symptomatology
should also be refined to consider the novel imaging
assessments
and
those patients who would currently be considered high- or
ultra-high-risk SMM based on the presence of focal
lesions in MRI or PET/CT and tomorrow be reclassified as
symptomatic MM.”
All that glitters is not gold !
Curr Hematol Malig Rep (2013) 8:270–276
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Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia August 2010
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• The linear model of progression is
now challenged.
• The branching model is now
accepted, as different clones of
myeloma cells acquire different
genetic changes and may progress
differentially to MM
• So, all MGUS/SMM patients do not
behave similarly
Progression of MGUS to MM
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Different cytokines concentrations show that SMM falls within the continuum of progression of disease biology from MGUS to MM.
A. Zingone et al. / Cytokine 69 (2014) 294–297
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• The patient at other end of the spectra
are candidates for early treatment
• The presence of several prognostic
factors are able to discriminate
subgroups of patients with different
degrees of risk of progression to active
disease
Who would benefit most ?
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• Numerous studies have
been done to identify the
SMM patients with higher
risk of progression.
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Risk stratification schemes for MGUS and Smoldering Myeloma
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• Landgren’s team prospectively evaluated this two most widely accepted risk
models, the Mayo and Salamanca criteria, in a series of 77 patients with SMM
• Patients were categorized as low, standard or high risk according to the two
criteria.
• There was significant discordance in overall patient risk classification (28.6%
concordance)
• Significant discordance was also in classifying patients as low versus high
(P .0001), low versus non-low (P .0007), and high versus non-high (P .0001) risk.
Discordance in risk score
Cherry BM, et al. Modeling progression risk for smoldering multiple
myeloma: results from a prospective clinical study. Leuk Lymphoma.
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“ Identification and validation of other
biomarkers will be needed before clinicians can
determine whether initiation of early treatment
is beneficial to patients with high-risk SMM. ”
-- Ola Landgren
Expertspeak
Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering multiple myeloma: biological insights and early treatment strategies; Hematology 2013
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• Flow cytometry of abberant plasma
cells
• The serum FLC monomer-dimer
patterns.
• Estimated doubling time of less
than 3 months
Newer markers of Risk stratification
American Journal of Hematology, Vol. 89, No. 9, September 2014
Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia February 2014
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Relative risk of progression
Rajkumar, S. V. & Kyle, R. A. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 10, 554–555 (2013);
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• Bone marrow plasmacytosis of >60% affects 2% to
8% of all SMM patients
• The involved FLC/ uninvolved FLC of >100 or
greater captures approximately 7% to 15% of the
SMM population
• More than 1 focal lesion on whole-body MRI, which
affects 15% of SMM patients
Ultra high risk SMM
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What happens when we treat SMM early ?
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• Pre 1990 era. Melphalan based therapy
• Post 1990 era. Thalidomide based therapy
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• In the Hjorth study, the response rate was similar (52 % vs. 55
%)
• Thalidomide plus zolendronic acid versus zolendronic acid in
SMM patients,
the rate of ≥PR was 37 % in the thalidomide arm versus 0 %,
but there were no significant differences either in the TTP to
symptomatic MM (4.3 vs. 3.3 years) or in the overall survival.
most of the patients discontinued treatment due to peripheral
neuropathy.
• One should be careful to analyze key end points such as time to
progression and overall survival because partial and complete
responses may not be illustrative of benefit
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• Paradoxically, patients who initially displayed at
least a PR to thalidomide had a shorter median time
to treatment (< 2 years) than patients who showed
no improvement (not reached in 8 years).
• This may be a result of selection of aggressive
clones because of treatment
What we learnt ?
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• The rate of adverse events, particularly
infection, was much higher in the
treatment group than in the observation
group
• all grade infection: 47% [including a fatal
respiratory infection] vs. 22%.
• Median follow-up of 40 months- not
sufficient to allow assessment of different
consequences of the treatment such as
secondary malignancies and negative
effect on further therapy.
-- N Engl J Med 2013;369:438-47.
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• Only patients of high risk SMM taken.
• Bone status of the SMM patients were not
included
• No MRI was performed at baseline and a higher
incidence of MRI signal abnormalities in the
observation group could not be excluded.
Drawbacks
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Drawbacks contd..• Although these therapeutic strategies have
facilitated improved survival, cure remains elusive.
• 4 cycle Lenalidomide/ dexamethasone without
transplant in symptomatic myeloma has 3 year
survival of only 55 %.
• So, Lenalidomide/ dexamethasone is generally
given indefinitely until disease progression ( based
on single-institution studies as well as on the
E4A03 trial.)
• On a cautionary note, there is potential for the
development of long-term toxicities with prolonged
novel agent therapy
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• This strategy may result in overtreatment of
approximately 40% of patients at 3 years, 30% of
patients at 4 years, and 20% of patients at 5 years
• With the regimens (ie, lenalidomide plus
dexamethasone), the annual cost of therapy is
approximately $100 000 USD, not including the
extra monitoring required for patients on active
therapy and management of adverse events.
Drawbacks contd..
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• Addition of DEX was allowed at the time of asymptomatic biologic progression in treatment group but not in the observation group. (‘time varying confounding’ effect) – this might have given a false impression on Overall survival difference
• Trial results only applicable to a subset with SMM (40% diagnosed with a flow based definition – A methodology not available in many institutions)
Drawbacks contd..
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• Patients in the observation arm were not only differently managed compared with patients in the treatment arm, but were also not managed according to current “good” clinical practices checking the monoclonal immunoglobulin and other disease markers including MRI for initiating
treatment before the occurrence of symptomatic disease
Drawbacks contd..
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• In highly active disease, i.e. ultra high risk, may simulate
the scenario 1, and can benefit from early treatment.
• But other SMM patients will follow scenario 2 or 3, where
therapy will not change the position, rather may be
detrimental.
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TRIALS IN PATIENTS WITH SMOLDERING MYELOMA
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Swedish Myeloma Registry
NEJM 2013
From January 1, 2008, through December 31, 2011, a total of 2494 patients (median age, 72 years) received a diagnosis of multiple myeloma, of whom 360 (14.4%) had smoldering multiple myeloma. Of the patients with smoldering multiple myeloma, 104 (28.8%) had high-risk disease (defined as an M-protein level of ≥3 g per deciliter and plasma-cell infiltration of ≥10%); these patients accounted for 4.2% of all patients with multiple myeloma. After 2 years, 56.6% of the patients with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma had progression to symptomatic disease, and after a median follow-up time of 29.8 months, 70.4% had progression.
29% will be considered for early treatment according to criteria.
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Rate of progression - >80% at 2-3 years
LEN –DEX based on phase 3 data
HOWEVER, THIS CONCEPT NEEDS TO BE ENDORSED BY IMWG FOR A CONSENSUS
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BLOOD, 19 DECEMBER 2013 x VOLUME 122, NUMBER 26
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TREATMENT YES / NO
? Second Malignancy
Side effects
Drug resistance
? Quality of life
Less progression to
MM
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