Patients with double-refractory multiple myeloma had an overall response rate of 68% and patients with high-risk disease had a response rate of 56%
If you’ve been told that your MM is “double refractory”(relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma) then you probably will be ecstatic at the news that you have additional therapies that can put you into remission again. However please understand that this new chemo cocktail comes with serious side effects.
Consider including both integrative and complementary therapies to toxic MM chemo regimens in order to reduce or eliminate the many short, long-term and late stage side effects that can overwhelm relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma survivors.
I am pointing this out to you not to be annoying but because I believe that side effects from toxic therapies can be managed. Integrative therapies are evidence-based and have shown to reduce the damage done to healthy cells.
Forty-two percent of patients experienced a grade 3/4 adverse event including
- hematologic toxicities (40%),
- hyperglycemia (25%), and
- pneumonia (15%).
Immune-related events included
- pneumonitis (13%) and
- hypothyroidism (10%).
Most immune-related events were grade 1/2 and resolved with interruption of therapy
I am a long-term MM survivor and MM cancer coach. Scroll down the page to ask me a question or make a comment. I will reply to you ASAP.
Thank you,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
“Combination treatment with pembrolizumab, pomalidomide, and low-dose dexamethasone resulted in durable responses in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma…
The study included 48 patients with relapsed/refractory disease. The median number of prior lines of therapy was three and patients had received both immunomodulatory agents and proteasome inhibitors…
Almost two-thirds (60%) of patients experienced an objective response to treatment. Four patients (8%) had a stringent complete response or complete response, nine patients (19%) had a very good partial response, and 16 patients (33%) had a partial response…
Patients with double-refractory disease had an overall response rate of 68% and patients with high-risk disease had a response rate of 56%…
“Understanding the limitation of comparing different studies, the clinical data from the current study support a synergistic activity between pomalidomide and pembrolizumab that led to high overall response rate (60%) that were remarkably durable,” the researchers wrote. “The lack of single-agent activity for the PD-1 inhibitor nivolumab in multiple myeloma patients suggests that myeloma is refractory to anti–PD-1 therapy.”
Forty-two percent of patients experienced a grade 3/4 adverse event including hematologic toxicities (40%), hyperglycemia (25%), and pneumonia (15%). Immune-related events included pneumonitis (13%) and hypothyroidism (10%). Most immune-related events were grade 1/2 and resolved with interruption of therapy…
