Efficacy and safety of venetoclax in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma: a meta-analysis

Venetoclax is clinically active in treating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of venetoclax or venetoclax with other agents in treating RRMM.

PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Cochrane Library were comprehensively searched. We included studies investigating the efficacy and safety of venetoclax or venetoclax with other agents in treating RRMM. Overall response rates (ORR), stringent complete response rates (sCR), complete response rates (CR), very good partial response rates (VGPR), partial response rates (PR), stable disease (SD), progressive disease (PD) and adverse events were synthesized using either a random-effects model or a fixed-effects model.

A total of 7 clinical trials with 482 patients with RRMM were included. Concerning venetoclax with other agents, the pooled ORR, sCR, CR, VGPR, PR, SD, and PD were 0.76 (95% CIs: 0.62, 0.87), 0.11 (95% CIs: 0.04, 0.21), 0.18 (95% CIs: 0.11, 0.26), 0.16 (95% CIs: 0.12, 0.25), 0.29 (95% CIs: 0.25, 0.34), 0.07 (95% CIs: 0.05, 0.10), and 0.11 (95% CIs: 0.04, 0.23). The overall rate of adverse events ≥ Grade 3 was 0.84 (95% CIs: 0.77, 0.91). The most common non-hematologic adverse events were nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, back pain, and vomiting; hematologic adverse events included thrombocytopenia, neutropenia, anemia, leukopenia, and lymphopenia.

This study indicates that venetoclax alone or in combination with other agents reveals favorable treatment responses and acceptable adverse events in treating RRMM.