About this Research Topic

Background

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant neoplasm of plasma cells that accumulate in bone marrow, leading to bone destruction and marrow failure. It accounts for approximately 1.8% of all hematologic and solid cancers and slightly > 15% of hematologic malignancies in the United States. MM is typically sensitive to different classes of cytotoxic drugs, both as frontline treatment and as treatment for relapsed disease. Unfortunately, even if responses are typically durable, nowadays MM is not considered curable with current approaches.

However, MM survival rates have been brilliantly improved thanks to the introduction of novel agents: patients diagnosed after 2010 have had higher rates of novel therapy use and better survival outcomes compared with those of earlier years. Most relevant therapeutic advances over the past decades has been the introduction of novel therapies, such as immune-modifying agents (thalidomide and lenalidomide) and proteasome inhibitors (bortezomib), adopted with or without stem cell transplantation.

Moreover, in the last few years, the MM therapeutic “toolbox” has improved further with the approval in new generation IMID (pomalidomide), the monoclonal antibodies, daratumumab and elotuzumab, as well as the new-generation proteasome inhibitors, carfilzomib and ixazomib.

At the same time, there is increasing understanding of MM tumor biology, creating the rationale for new combinations of drugs and new therapy development. Discovery of the associated cytogenetic abnormalities confirm the hypothesis that MM is a heterogeneous disease, suggesting that risk-adapted therapies and individualizing treatment will further help improve patient management.

In this scenario, our idea is to evaluate both in newly diagnosed, relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma and supportive care, retrospective experience of several treatments, including old and novel agents, in order to compare “real world” experience with clinical trial results.

Data on efficacy and safety of real-life experiences seem to be highly comparable to those of major trials, adopting the same regimen in the same clinical setting without the limits of the eligibility criteria. This shows how these treatments can be considered as feasible salvage therapeutic options, sometimes also in heavily pretreated patients.

Moreover, timing to undergo ASCT in novel agents-based induction or reinduction, MRD monitoring, and supportive care recommendations in management of MM with novel agents are other hot topics. We welcome the submission of Original Research, Review, Clinical Trial, Hypothesis and Theory, and Opinion articles.

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics, computational analysis, or predictions of public databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent clinical or patient cohort, or biological validation in vitro or in vivo, which are not based on public databases) are not suitable for publication in this journal.

Keywords: multiple myeloma, novel agents, patient care, support and management care, hematologic malignancies

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