EMMA Vienna 2017 | Novel therapies in myeloma: selinexor, venetoclax, among others

Heinz Ludwig, MD of the Wilhelminen Cancer Research Institute, Vienna, Austria and Niels van de Donk, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center, Amsterdam hold a discussion on treatments for myeloma which are newly becoming available. There are thousands of people working on developing these drugs and there is a bright future for myeloma patients. Prof. Ludwig mentions there are several non-immunotherapeutic drugs which have shown to be very promising for the treatment of relapse/refractory multiple myeloma. One of these drugs, which he highlights as being more advanced, is selinexor, an inhibitor of the transport protein XPO. He explains that although this research is very fascinating and there is good reason to be hopefully, it is crucial to wait for more data to understand more about these types of drugs.
Dr van de donk then goes on to talk about Venetoclax, another promising compound for the treatment of myeloma. He explains that it is a Bcl-2 inhibitor and is especially active in patients with translocation 11;14. Interestingly, when a Bcl-2 inhibitor is combined with a MCR-1 inhibitor, the response rates are very promising.
Prof, Ludwig and Dr van de Donk conclude their discussion by talking about patients with a high-risk genetic profile. Referring to the monotherapy trials and the daratumumab, len-dex and Bordeaux trial, Dr van de Donk explains that it is believed that this patient group would benefit from antibody-based therapies. Prof. Ludwig explains that one approach is to find the important networks that drive these high-risk cells and then find inhibitors for different proteins to slow these cells down. Another approach is to find a way to reduce the high mutational activity of myeloma.
Recorded at the 2017 European Multiple Myeloma Academy (EMMA) in Vienna, Austria.
This program was sponsored by Celgene through an unrestricted educational grant to Video Journal of Hematological Oncology.