The characterization of adrenal insufficiency and identification of its risk factors in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias

Treatment and disease-related complications in multiple myeloma: Implications for survivorship

New treatments have transformed multiple myeloma into a chronic disease. Hence, optimal management of treatment and disease-related complications remains a critical component of survivorship care. Survivorship care model in cancers requiring a fixed-duration therapy may not be applicable to myeloma, since patients are exposed to multiple lines of continuous therapy along the disease trajectory. The two most common therapy-related causes of death, which require special consideration, are infection and second cancers. Identifying patients at a high risk of toxicities will facilitate individualized treatment selection and designing clinical trials for protective strategies targeting those patients. For example, prophylactic antibiotic or immunoglobulin replacement can be tested for primary prevention of infections in high-risk patients. Long-term follow up of ongoing trials and epidemiologic data will help identify the nature and trajectory of rare toxicities with a long latency, such as secondary cancers. Patients who are frail, have persistent renal insufficiency, and refractory to multiple lines of therapy need special attention regarding treatment toxicity and quality of life. In this review, we discuss the incidence, risk-factors, and management of treatment and disease-related complications in myeloma, discuss knowledge gaps and research priorities in this area, and propose a survivorship care model to improve health-care delivery to a growing pool of myeloma survivors.

Treating Multiple Myeloma Patients With Oral Therapies

Recent advances have highlighted the importance of long-term, continuous treatment in multiple myeloma (MM) to improve survival. However, treatment burden continues to negatively impact the real-world duration of MM therapy, and strategies to limit the adverse impact of treatment on patient quality of life are therefore particularly important. Oral MM therapies include the immunomodulatory drugs lenalidomide, thalidomide, and pomalidomide; the alkylating agents melphalan and cyclophosphamide; the histone deacetylase inhibitor panobinostat; the corticosteroids prednisone and dexamethasone; and the proteasome inhibitor ixazomib. The most commonly reported adverse events with these treatments include hematologic events such as thrombocytopenia and neutropenia; the gastrointestinal events nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea; venous thrombotic events such as deep-vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism; and events such as rash and peripheral neuropathy. It is important that patients receiving oral therapies at home report symptoms before they become difficult to manage. Appropriate management of these treatment-related adverse events, awareness of both food and drug interactions, and assisting patients with out-of-pocket costs are all important factors in providing efficacious, sustainable, and convenient MM therapy. We outline evidence-based recommendations to provide a practical guide for health care providers addressing the effective management of MM patients receiving oral therapy.

Incidence and Risk of Cardiac Events in Patients With Previously Treated Multiple Myeloma Versus Matched Patients Without Multiple Myeloma: An Observational, Retrospective, Cohort Study

BACKGROUND

Multiple myeloma (MM) patients have age-, disease-, and treatment-related risk factors for cardiac events.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We analyzed the 2006 to 2011 MarketScan database to determine whether the risk of cardiac events is greater in MM patients than in non-MM patients. Included were 1723 MM patients treated with corticosteroids and ≥ 3 drugs (bortezomib, immunomodulatory derivatives, and alkylating agents or anthracyclines). The index date (ID) was the date on which the 3-drug exposure criterion was met. Also included were 8615 age- and gender-matched non-MM patients (5:1). The distribution of non-MM patients' IDs matched that of the MM patients' IDs. Baseline was 6 months before the ID. The follow-up duration was from the ID to study end (ie, 2011 or end of enrollment or prescription drug coverage). Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were adjusted for baseline variables when the univariate analyses showed a 10% difference.

RESULTS

The median duration of observation was 9 months (range, 0-60 months) for MM patients and 19 months (range, 0-66 months) for non-MM patients. The risk of any cardiac event (HR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.9-2.5), dysrhythmia (HR, 4.1; 95% CI, 3.5-4.8), congestive heart failure (HR, 2.9; 95% CI, 2.2-3.7), cardiomyopathy (HR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.8-3.8), and conduction disorders (HR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.2-2.5) was significantly greater for MM than for non-MM patients. The incidence of hypertensive or arterial events and ischemic heart disease was similar between the 2 groups.

CONCLUSION

The present study provides the first known comparison of cardiac event risk in patients with MM versus age- and gender-matched patients without MM. The cardiac event risk was greater in MM patients with ≥ 3 previous drugs for any cardiac event, dysrhythmias, congestive heart failure, cardiomyopathy, and conduction disorders compared with patients without MM.