ASCO Expert Discusses Clinical Benefit of Combination for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma

Ajay K. Nooka, MD, MPH, FACP, an ASCO expert from the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discussed the clinical benefit of belantamab mafodotin in combination with bortezomib plus dexamethasone combination treatment for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma presented at the 2020 ASCO Virtual Scientific Program.

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What about the clinical benefit or the clinical efficacy? The overall response rate that was seen with this combination was 78%. The clinical benefit rate was seen in 83% which is-4 out of 5 people go on to benefit from this combination. More importantly you’re able to see the depth of response, the VGPR range greater than 50% with this combination. This is all in alignment with a prior 3-drug combination with the specific backbone of bortezomib/dexamethasone and with the manageable safety profile. From my perspective to conclude, it has a great activity as a single agent. We did not see any new signals when it was combined with bortezomib/dexamethasone. The toxicities that we talked about-the infusion-related reactions, thrombocytopenia, as well as the corneal events-these are manageable with appropriate dose modifications and dose reductions.