A Retrospective Study of Clinical Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed, Transplant Ineligible Multiple Myeloma Patients Treated With Daratumumab, Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone (DRd) Outside of Clinical Trials in the UK

Triplet therapy with daratumumab, lenalidomide and dexamethasone (DRd) for transplant ineligible (TIE) untreated myeloma patients (MAIA) was reported in 2019. NICE approved this in September 2023 and since this time DRd has become the standard of care regimen for TIE patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma in the UK. Although there are reports of real world experience (RWE) of DRd efficacy in relapsed setting, there are no RWE reports of DRd efficacy and outcomes from the UK where it is used in the upfront setting and very limited data from Europe. Moreover, UK clinicians often adopt a pragmatic dose adjustment approach, particularly in the dosing of lenalidomide (escalation and de-escalation) with steroid tapering. As well as reducing short-term toxicities, this approach may lead to longer term benefits by reducing long-term steroid adverse effects such as steroid-induced diabetes, help ameliorate immune paresis and reduce infection risk.

However, there is very limited data on the efficacy and outcomes of this practice. In particular, there is no published RWE on the impact of pre-emptive dose modifications on tolerability and efficacy in frail patients, the cohort in which the highest treatment discontinuation rates were observed in the MAIA trial. It is also perceived that patients with comorbidities, which would have been excluded in MAIA cohort, are benefiting from this flexible approach in real world practice, especially people with chronic kidney disease and other comorbidities. A proportion of patients initially deemed fit for autologous stem cell transplantation (received D-VTD as induction) are also receiving DRd if they fail to receive a transplant. These patients were not represented in the MAIA study and the outcomes following de-escalation from D-VTD to DRd are unknown.