Skip to main content

CASE REPORT article

Front. Oncol.
Sec. Hematologic Malignancies
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1466323

Daratumumab treatment for kidney-involved light chain deposition disease prevents renal function progression: A case report with 3 years of follow-up and review of the literature

Provisionally accepted
Xueying Chen Xueying Chen 1jie sun jie sun 1Pingyan Shen Pingyan Shen 2Zijin Chen Zijin Chen 2*Wen Zhang Wen Zhang 2
  • 1 Department of Nephrology, Wuxi branch of Ruijin Hospital Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of MedicineWuxi Xinwu District Xinrui Hospital, Wuxi, China
  • 2 Department of Nephrology, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Light chain deposition disease (LCDD) is a clonal plasma cell disorder characterized by the deposition of nonamyloid monoclonal light chains in multiple organs. It can affect various systems throughout the body, mainly the kidneys.Symptoms may include renal insufficiency, proteinuria, hematuria, and others. Due to the lack of effective treatment, LCDD patients with kidney involvement often progress to chronic kidney failure, ultimately requiring renal replacement therapy.Daratumumab, an anti-CD38 monoclonal antibody, is primarily used for the treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. Recent studies have shown that daratumumab also has an encouraging effect on light-chain amyloidosis. Here, we report the case of an LCDD (κ chain) patient with proteinuria, renal insufficiency, and anemia who was followed up for 3 years, during which he received daratumumab treatment. After the daratumumab treatment, the hematologic response continued progressing to a complete response without any adverse effects and continuous renal function improvement at a low serum free light chain (sFLC) level. This case shows that daratumumab is effective at treating LCDD. For LCDD patients with kidney 2 involvement, frequent monitoring and active control of free light chain levels are necessary, as reaching the lowest sFLC of < 20 mg/L may help to improve kidney function.

    Keywords: Light chain deposition disease1, free light chain2, daratumumab3, renal function4, proteinuria5

    Received: 17 Jul 2024; Accepted: 13 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Chen, sun, Shen, Chen and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zijin Chen, Department of Nephrology, Ruijin Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200025, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.