Publications by authors named "Monica Galli"

Introduction: In the OPTIMISMM trial, pomalidomide/bortezomib/dexamethasone (PVd) significantly prolonged median progression-free survival (PFS) versus bortezomib/dexamethasone (Vd) in lenalidomide-exposed relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). We report final overall survival (OS) and updated efficacy analyses.

Methods: Adults with RRMM who had 1-3 prior regimens, including lenalidomide (≥ 2 cycles), were assigned (1:1) to PVd or Vd.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The ELOQUENT-3 trial found that the combination of elotuzumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloPd) is more effective and safer than pomalidomide and dexamethasone (Pd) for treating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients who have undergone at least two prior therapies.
  • - An 18-month follow-up of 319 RRMM patients treated with EloPd in Italy revealed that 66.4% experienced disease progression or death, with median progression-free survival and overall survival recorded at 7.5 and 19.2 months, respectively.
  • - While EloPd remains a viable treatment option,
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: Ixazomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (IRd) have been approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) based on the results of the TOURMALINE-MM1.

Objectives And Methods: We conducted a retrospective-prospective analysis of 106 RRMM patients (pts) treated with IRd in 21 centers in Northern Italy, with the aim to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IRd in real life.

Results: At IRd initiation, 34% of pts were aged ≥75 (median 72.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Introduction: A proportion of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) are older and/or have comorbidities, requiring dose adjustments. Data from OPTIMISMM (NCT01734928) supported the use of pomalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (PVd) for treating relapsed/refractory MM. This subanalysis of OPTIMISMM assessed outcome by frailty and/or bortezomib dose adjustment.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple myeloma (MM) cells from 1 out of 20 patient expressed high basal levels of membrane B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA, TNFRSF17, CD269), which was not upregulated by gamma-secretase inhibitor, suggesting a defective BCMA shedding by gamma-secretase. Genetic analyses of the patient's bone marrow DNA showed no mutations within the BCMA coding region, but rather partial deletion of PSEN1 and amplification of PSEN2, which encode alternative catalytic units of gamma-secretase. Altogether the data suggest that pt#12 MM cells express high and dysregulated BCMA with no shedding, due to genetic alterations of one or more gamma-secretase subunits.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - In the ELOQUENT-3 trial, the combination therapy of elotuzumab, pomalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloPd) showed better results for treating relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) compared to pomalidomide and dexamethasone alone, leading to its approval for specific patients.
  • - A real-world study of 200 RRMM cases in Italy confirmed similar effectiveness and manageable side effects for EloPd, with a 55.4% overall response rate and a median progression-free survival of 7 months, though these were lower than results from the ELOQUENT-3 trial.
  • - Factors like the number of previous
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: 18F-FDG-PET/CT is the current standard technique to define minimal residual disease (MRD) outside the bone marrow (BM) in multiple myeloma (MM), recently standardised applying the Deauville scores (DS) to focal lesions (FS) and bone marrow uptake (BMS) and defining the complete metabolic response (CMR) as uptake below the liver background (DS <4).

Methods: In this analysis, we aimed at confirming the role of CMR, and complementarity with BM multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) at 10, in an independent cohort of newly diagnosed transplant-eligible MM patients previously enrolled in the phase II randomised FORTE trial. 109 of the 474 global patients enrolled in the trial between February 23, 2015, and April 5, 2017, who had paired PET/CT (performed at baseline [B] and preceding maintenance therapy [PM]) and MFC evaluation, were included in this analysis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd)-based triplets, in particular carfilzomib-Rd (KRd) and daratumumab-Rd (DaraRd), represent a standard of care in lenalidomide-sensitive multiple myeloma (MM) patients in first relapse. Meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials (RCT), suggested better outcome with DaraRd. Trying to address this issue in clinical practice, we collected data of 430 consecutive MM patients addressed to Rd-based triplets in first relapse between January 2017 and March 2021.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The present study aimed to develop two survival risk scores (RS) for overall survival (OS, SRS ) and progression-free survival (PFS, PRS ) in 919 relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients who received carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (KRd)/elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloRd). The median OS was 35.4 months, with no significant difference between the KRd arm versus the EloRd arm.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The combination of elotuzumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone (EloRd) enhanced the clinical benefit over Rd with a manageable toxicity profile in the ELOQUENT-2 trial, leading to its approval in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM). The present study is a 3-year follow-up update of a previously published Italian real-life RRMM cohort of patients treated with EloRd. This revised analysis entered 319 RRMM patients accrued in 41 Italian centers.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • - The study evaluates the effectiveness and safety of carfilzomib-based treatment regimens for young, fit patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, comparing them to the current standard of care (bortezomib with high-dose melphalan and lenalidomide maintenance).
  • - Conducted as a randomized, open-label trial across 42 centers in Italy, the study enrolled patients under 65, categorizing them into different treatment groups involving autologous stem-cell transplantation, carfilzomib, and lenalidomide.
  • - Patients underwent four cycles of carfilzomib-based induction therapy, followed by stem-cell transplantation and then randomized to maintenance treatment either with carfilzomib plus
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The lack of a randomized trial comparing carfilzomib (K) versus elotuzumab (Elo) associated with lenalidomide and dexamethasone (Rd) prompted us to assess the relative usefulness of one triplet over the other. Five independent retrospective cohorts of 883 relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients, including 300 EloRd and 583 KRd cases, outside clinical trials, entered this non-randomized comparison. KRd cohort accounted for a higher incidence of younger patients, cases with ≥3 lines of therapy, already exposed to lenalidomide, International Staging System (ISS) stage III, and abnormal lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) level compared with EloRd cohort.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objective: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of pomalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (PVd) vs bortezomib and dexamethasone (Vd) by age, renal function, and high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities in lenalidomide-pretreated patients with multiple myeloma at first relapse.

Methods: OPTIMISMM was a phase 3, multicenter, open-label, randomized study (NCT01734928; N = 559). The primary endpoint was progression-free survival (PFS).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Objectives: Autologous stem cell transplantation is the gold standard for eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients. Patients are usually hospitalized for administration of mobilization chemotherapy. We aimed to assess safety and efficacy of mobilization therapy with low-dose (2 g/m ) and intermediate-dose (3-4 g/m ) cyclophosphamide administered as outpatient.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • Minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment using multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) is a key method for determining treatment effectiveness in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients.
  • In a study of 321 patients, 76% were found to be MRD-negative at enrollment, with MRD-negative patients showing significantly better 5-year progression-free survival (66% vs. 31%) and overall survival (86% vs. 69%) compared to MRD-positive patients.
  • The study also found that lenalidomide maintenance treatment increased the rate of patients transitioning from MRD-positive to MRD-negative after one year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lenalidomide-dexamethasone (Rd) is standard treatment for elderly patients with multiple myeloma (MM). In this randomized phase 3 study, we investigated efficacy and feasibility of dose/schedule-adjusted Rd followed by maintenance at 10 mg per day without dexamethasone (Rd-R) vs continuous Rd in elderly, intermediate-fit newly diagnosed patients with MM. Primary end point was event-free survival (EFS), defined as progression/death from any cause, lenalidomide discontinuation, or hematologic grade 4 or nonhematologic grade 3 to 4 adverse event (AE).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The phase 3 GIMEMA-MMY-3006 trial, which compared bortezomib, thalidomide, and dexamethasone (VTD) combination therapy with thalidomide and dexamethasone (TD) as induction therapy before and consolidation therapy after double autologous haematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, showed the superiority of the triplet regimen over the doublet in terms of increased complete response rate and improved progression-free survival. We report the results from the final analysis of the study.

Methods: In this randomised, open-label, phase 3 study, patients aged 18-65 years with previously untreated symptomatic multiple myeloma and a Karnofsky Performance Status of 60% or higher were enrolled at 73 centres in Italy.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Selinexor combined with dexamethasone has shown activity in patients with heavily pre-treated multiple myeloma. In a phase 1b/2 study, the combination of oral selinexor with bortezomib (a proteasome inhibitor) and dexamethasone induced high response rates with low rates of peripheral neuropathy, the main dose-limiting toxicity of bortezomib. We aimed to evaluate the clinical benefit of weekly selinexor, bortezomib, and dexamethasone versus standard bortezomib and dexamethasone in patients with previously treated multiple myeloma.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF
Article Synopsis
  • A clinical study was conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) versus the combination therapy of bortezomib-melphalan-prednisone (VMP) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.
  • The research included untreated patients aged 18-65 with symptomatic multiple myeloma, enrolling at 172 centers within the European Myeloma Network and randomizing them to different treatment groups.
  • After initial treatment with either VMP or HSCT, patients were randomized again to receive consolidation therapy with bortezomib-lenalidomide-dexamethasone or no consolidation, with the aim of assessing the overall benefits and outcomes of these treatment
View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Bortezomib- and lenalidomide-containing regimens are well-established therapies in multiple myeloma (MM). However, despite their extensive use, head-to-head comparisons have never been performed. Therefore, we compared bortezomib and lenalidomide in fixed-duration therapies.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Plerixafor inhibits CXCR4, thus inducing the mobilization of hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells in lymphoma and multiple myeloma (MM) patients eligible for autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). However, the kinetics of plerixafor-induced mobilization of lymphocyte subsets is poorly known. Here, we evaluated the graft content, the engraftment, and the immunological reconstitution of MM patients receiving plerixafor.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF