Three Drug Regimens for Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Transplant-Ineligible Elderly Patients - a Systematic Review

Introduction: Patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) who are ineligible for autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) tend to have comorbidities and/or advanced age that make this subset of patients difficult to manage with current drug regimens. Methods: A comprehensive literature search of PubMed, Embase, Clinicaltrials.gov and Web of Science was performed from inception and completed on 07/17/2019. Studies focusing on efficacy and tolerability of 3-drug regimens in patients with NDMM were included for the review. Results: Out of 3579 studies, a total of 10 (08 phase II and 03 phase III) clinical trials in last ten years (2010-2019) using 3-drug regimens in NDMM elderly pts (893M/807F) ineligible for ASCT (determined by investigators) were selected. A total of 1703/1740 NDMM pts were evaluated. Proteasome inhibitors (PIs) such as carfilzomib (C), bortezomib (V) and ixazomib (I) showed promising results in elderly transplant-ineligible NDMM pts. CLARION trial (phase III, n=955) compared two PIs (C and V) with melphalan (M) and prednisone. There was no statistically significant difference in progression-free survival (PFS) between two groups (median: 22.3 vs 22.1 months; HR: 0.91; 95% CI, 0.75-1.10, p = 0.159) as well as overall survival (OS) (HR: 1.08; 95% CI: 0.82-1.43). Difference in the least square means of the HR-QoL (Health related- quality of life) was 4.99 (p