Real‐world data on survival improvement in patients with multiple myeloma treated at a single institution over a 45‐year period

Abstract

The prognostic landscape of multiple myeloma (MM) has evolved significantly over the last few decades. There are, however, few data measuring such improvement in real-world patients. This study aimed to investigate trends in survival improvement over 45 years, and the associated clinical factors, in an unselected population of patients with MM. Between 1970 and 2015, 1 161 MM patients were included. Patients were classified into three calendar periods (1970-1984, 1985-1999, and 2000-2015), according to the treatment received; polychemotherapy, autologous stem cell transplantation, and novel drugs respectively. We analysed relative survival (RS) to accurately evaluate MM-related death rates after excluding the mortality expected in the general population. RS at five years increased from 27% in 1970-1984 to 38% and 56% in the next two calendar periods respectively. The improvement to survival was greater in the younger population, but it was also observed in elderly patients and those with poor performance status and more advanced disease. Although myeloma is still a non-curable disease, encouraging results have been observed in the last decades. Progress is expected to continue with the use of new generations of antimyeloma drugs, and will, hopefully, be documented in real-world patients by the appropriate population-based studies.

Novel Agents as Main Drivers for Continued Improvement in Survival in Multiple Myeloma

“…No differences were observed in younger patients because of the effect of ASCT and probably the lack of follow-up. A historic study on the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona showed a significant improvement in OS over decades, regardless of the age at diagnosis, but especially in younger patients [35]. In addition, the population-based studies indirectly support the benefit of different milestones in MM treatment.…”

Global real-life analysis of survival and usage of therapies in multiple myeloma

“…For this proposal, we studied the survival rates of thousands of patients around the world with a global database, and we have con rmed these data locally in our institution. Although other authors have reported similar increases in survival, the number of cases in previous studies has been limited, and they have used data from single centres; (14) (15)(16) hence, the global impact of new therapies in MM is not well understood. In addition, most of the survival results for new treatments are obtained from clinical trials, which do not always re ect patients in routine clinical practice (17).…”

High serum miR-223-3p expression level predicts complete response and prolonged overall survival in multiple myeloma patients undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

“…In 2018, the global incidence of MM was 160,000 cases, and the global myeloma mortality rate was 106,000 patients ( 1 ). In recent years, a significant breakthrough was made in patient outcomes due to novel medications such as proteasome inhibitors (PI), immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs), and monoclonal antibodies ( 2 , 3 ). Despite the advances in treatment options, MM remains incurable, and almost all patients eventually relapse.…”