summary

While survival times have increased over the last decade, most patients with multiple myeloma eventually relapse and become refractory to therapy. The treatment of patients with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma is frequently further complicated by the presence of pre-existing comorbidities that arise from an advanced disease state and toxicities stemming from prior anti-myeloma treatment. The advent of second-generation immunomodulatory drugs like pomalidomide and more recently, the second-generation proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib, have the potential to improve the outcome of these patients. During the 2015 annual meeting of the European Hematology Association (EHA), results of the phase III ENDEAVOR study, assessing the combination of carfilzomib with dexamethasone were presented.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(3):116–7)