Early Relapse for Multiple Myeloma Patients Undergoing Single Autologous Stem Cell Therapy: A Single-center...

Multiple myeloma is a heterogeneous disease with diverse clinical courses and patient outcomes. Although the introduction of novel agents has improved the overall survival (OS) of multiple myeloma patients, reports have highlighted that a subset of patients persists who experience early relapse (ER) and whose prognosis is significantly poorer than that of patients with a longer therapy response.

The purpose of the present study was to understand the effect of ER on OS and identify other predictors of OS. We analyzed the outcomes of 257 patients who had undergone novel agent-based induction and single autologous stem cell therapy at our center from 2010 to 2016.

ER occurred in 35 patients (13.6%), and the group had a greater percentage of high-risk cytogenetics (48.5% vs. 23.3%; P = .0001), a lower percentage of a very good partial response or better (51.4% vs. 80.5%; P = .001), and a shorter median OS (17.8 months vs. not realized; P = .0001) compared with the non-ER group. Multivariate analysis showed that the presence of ER, high-risk cytogenetics, and lactate dehydrogenase > 350 UI/L are independent prognosticators for OS (P < .05).

Our results have demonstrated that ER is an important clinical indicator of patients at high risk. As applications of novel agents evolve, further studies are required to tailor therapy for this patient group.