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COMy 2026 | Key unmet needs in functional high-risk myeloma: a clinical perspective
In this interview, Martin Kaiser, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, discusses key unmet needs in functional and biologic high-risk myeloma, emphasizing the importance of expanding the use of diagnostic tools. Dr Kaiser highlights that the implementation of tools like gene expression profiling will help to identify patients with high unmet needs, and improve their treatment outcomes. This interview took place at the 12th World Congress on Controversies in Multiple Myeloma (COMy) in Paris, France.
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Transcript
So, one of the most pressing needs in my view from a clinical perspective is that we really need to pay more attention to the use of diagnostics, the diagnostic tools and the breadth of diagnostic tools that we have available. I think rightly so we’re paying a lot of attention to response tools such as MRD diagnostics, but there are actually tools that you do before you start a treatment that can tell you more about how aggressive a tumor is...
So, one of the most pressing needs in my view from a clinical perspective is that we really need to pay more attention to the use of diagnostics, the diagnostic tools and the breadth of diagnostic tools that we have available. I think rightly so we’re paying a lot of attention to response tools such as MRD diagnostics, but there are actually tools that you do before you start a treatment that can tell you more about how aggressive a tumor is. We are doing genetics now, and the IMWG has made a fantastic effort in updating the genetic risk classification last year. But there are already tools that have clinical accreditation, such as gene expression profiling, that we know can add substantially to our understanding of the disease better. These are kind of like more of an implementation problem, and I think that is something that we as a community should really take on as a goal for the coming years. I think the other side is, of course, that with these tools, we also much better understand who still has a really high unmet need. So we do see some patients with, for example, three genetic high-risk markers, even with the best treatments that we have around at the moment, not responding well. And this, of course, should be our focus as a community. How can we improve the outcome of these patients? We should enroll them into clinical trials and we should really, especially with the new tools of immunotherapies that we have, try our best to improve the outcome and reduce effectively the rate of functional high-risk as much as we can.
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