Summary
Multiple myeloma (MM) is the third most prevalent blood cancer and relapses after initial treatment. Although treatment options have advanced, patients with relapsed/refractory MM continue to need improved management options. Assessing patient response to therapy is important for assessing treatment's clinical benefit, and the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) has developed widely used response criteria for this purpose. Real-world data (RWD) can provide valuable insights into clinical outcomes, but inconsistent evaluation and capture of components of the IMWG criteria in RWD can impact the accuracy of response assessment.
To address this issue, researchers from Roche/Genentech, Mayo Clinic, and Flatiron Health have proposed a real-world derived response (dR) algorithm that estimates patient response based on laboratory measures routinely captured in electronic health records (EHRs). The accuracy and clinical utility of the dR algorithm were evaluated using clinical trial data and EHRs.
Why this matters
Fewer than half of MM patients in routine clinical practice can have their treatment response status calculated using strict IMWG response criteria. The dR algorithm may be used to derive response status for most MM patients in RWD databases, potentially overcoming the limitations of EHR-captured responses.