A new analysis of the phase III AURIGA study demonstrates that the addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide maintenance therapy significantly improves minimal residual disease (MRD)-negativity conversion rates in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients following transplant. The study, presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, highlights the benefits of this combination across diverse patient subgroups.
AURIGA Study Details
The AURIGA study (NCT03901963) investigated daratumumab plus lenalidomide versus lenalidomide alone as maintenance therapy in post-transplant multiple myeloma patients. The primary analysis, previously presented at the International Myeloma Society (IMS) annual meeting, showed a statistically significant improvement in MRD-negative conversion rates with the daratumumab/lenalidomide combination.
Subgroup Analysis
The recent ASH presentation focused on a subgroup analysis, examining patient characteristics such as age, race, International Staging System (ISS) stage, and cytogenetic risk classifications. According to Laahn Foster, MD, of the University of Virginia, the addition of daratumumab to lenalidomide consistently improved MRD negativity rates across all subgroups.
"Overall, makes it pretty simple, is that there was a benefit in adding daratumumab to lenalidomide maintenance in the post-transplant setting. It seemed to improve MRD negativity rates across all the different subgroups, so, despite age, race, ISS stage, their response at diagnosis, and the different risk classifications for cytogenetic risk," Dr. Foster explained.
Clinical Implications
The findings suggest a broad benefit for using a doublet regimen of daratumumab and lenalidomide in the maintenance setting for post-transplant myeloma patients. This approach is further supported by data from the PERSEUS and GRIFFIN trials, reinforcing the efficacy of combination therapies in this context.
"It shows that there's a benefit in using a doublet kind of regimen in the maintenance setting, specifically in this particular study looking at daratumumab and lenalidomide. So that I think would be the overall conclusion. And it basically just supports, or is complementary to, the data that was published for PERSEUS and GRIFFIN. So I think overall that's what I would say," Dr. Foster concluded.
