Triplet Regimens With Pomalidomide in Patients With Multiple Myeloma

Sagar Lonial, MD, professor and chair, Department of Hematology & Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, chief medical officer, Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University, discusses the results from 2 large phase III trials presented earlier this year for triplet regimens including pomalidomide (Pomalyst) in multiple myeloma.

First, in the phase III randomized OPTIMISMM trial, the 3-drug regimen of pomalidomide with bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone (PVd) was compared to the combination of bortezomib/dexamethasone. An 11-month progression-free survival (PFS) was found with the triplet regimen, versus 7.9 months in the control arm, according to Lonial.

These results are significant for these patients with early relapse. Lonial also notes that in the first patients to relapse, the PFS was at almost 20 months for the triplet regimen.

In the ELOQUENT-3 trial, patients with multiple myeloma were treated with either the triplet combination of elotuzumab (Empliciti) with pomalidomide and dexamethasone or pomalidomide/dexamethasone. The addition of elotuzumab improved PFS from about 3 months to over 10 months.