Evidence Based Recommendations for Supportive Care in Multiple Myeloma

Introduction:

Multiple myeloma (MM) is associated with end organ damage that negatively impacts the quality of life (QOL)and supportive care has a potential to improve symptoms.

Methods:

After detailed search on Pubmed, Cochrane, Embase and Clinical Trials.gov, we finalized total 36 articles on supportive care published after 2004.

Results:

Management of skeletal events: Mhaskar et al. (2017, n=3257) compared bisphosphonates (BPs) with placebo (PBO) in preventing pathological vertebral fractures, skeletal-related events (SRE), reported risk ratio (RR) of 0.74 in each; 95% CI 0.62-0.89 and 0.63-0.88 respectively. Both zoledronic acid (ZA) and clodronic acid prevent SRE, but mortality rate was better reduced with ZA (hazard ratio [HR]=0.84; p=0.0118), (Gareth et al. 2010, n=1960). In a study by Zuradelli et al. (2009, n= 240); hypocalcemia developed in 93 (38.8%) patients on ZA for a median of 2.3 months (range, 0-34.9). Vitamin D and calcium replacement is essential in patients developing hypocalcemia with BPs, (Kennel et al. 2009). Vertebral augmentation procedures improved pain after compression fracture (n=923) by 4.8, 4.6 and 4.4 points at 1 week, 1 year and beyond 1 year respectively, (Khan et al. 2014). Valerie et al. (2011, n=84) analyzed improvement in bone pain with radiotherapy (median 45 grays) in 92 % patients.

Prophylaxis of infections: Leng et al. (2018, n=70,687) observed reduced risk of herpes zoster (HZ) reactivation in patients on bortezomib or carfilzomib + HZ prophylaxis (2.4%) vs 5.8% in non-prophylactic group, (attributable risk reduction: 0.42; 95% CI 0.31-0.56). Teh et al. (2016, n=199) reported reduced risk of varicella zoster virus reactivation with valacyclovir (500 mg) in patients on bortezomib based therapy and following autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) vs no prophylaxis (HR=0.06 vs 16.9; p<0.01). Dimopoulos et al. (2016, n=569) found higher risk of pneumonia, 8.2% in daratumumab group (n=286) vs 7.8% in control group (n=283). Prophylactic trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole reduced risk of PCP in 85% patients after ASCT (RR=0.15; 95% CI 0.04-0.62), Stern et al. (2014, n=1000). Incidence of Community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), noninvasive CAP and invasive pneumococcal disease in elderly population (≥65 years) was seen in 49, 33 and 7 patients on Pneumococcal polysaccharide conjugate vaccine group as compared to 90, 60 and 28 patients in placebo group respectively, (Bonten et al. 2015, n=84,496).

Role of plasmapheresis in renal impairment (RI): Alkhatib et al. (2017) showed that plasmapheresis reduced dialysis dependency by removing serum free light chains (sFLC) in patients with RI (n=147), (RR 0.45; P = 0.02). Yu-X et al. (2015, n=147), showed lower 6-month dialysis dependency ratio with plasmapheresis and chemotherapy (PP + CTH) vs CTH alone, (15.6% vs 37.2%; RR=2.02; p = 0.04). High cut-off hemodialysis lowered sFLC level in 61% (n=42) and 63% patients at day 12 and 21 respectively. Out of these, 71% and 69% patients became dialysis independent, (Hutchison et al. 2012, n=67).

Peripheral neuropathy (PN): Bortezomib caused PN in 124/331 (37%) patients (Richardson et al. 2009) whereas with thalidomide, the incidence of PN was 38% and 73% at 6 and 12 months, respectively, (Mileshkin et al. 2006, n=75). PN improved in 68% patients on bortezomib with dose modifications (n=72) vs 47% patients, without dose modification (n=19). (Table 1 and 2). Significant improvement in PN was seen with duloxetine vs placebo (1.06 vs. 0.34; p= 0.003), (Smith et al. 2013, n=231). Arbaiza et al. (2007, n=36) showed improvement in neuropathic pain with tramadol (p= < 0.001).

Epoetin and derivates for anemia: Castelli et al. (2017, n= 31; median creatinine 1.2 mg/dL (0.8-3.0)) reported hemoglobin (Hb) increase of ≥1g/dL and ≥2g/dL in 71% and 31.7% patients respectively with epoetin α, transfusions requirement reduced from 2.39 ± 1.05 to 1.23 ± 1.36 (p < 0.001). Begiun et al. (2013, n= 72) compared the effect of darbepoetin (D) ± iron (Fe) vs placebo on erythroid recovery after ASCT. All patients receiving D + Fe achieved Hb ≥13 g/dL (p<0.0001). Tonia et al. (2012, n= 16,093) showed 35% decrease in transfusion need with erythropoietin stimulating agents (RR=0.65; 95% CI 0.62-0.68). (Table 3)

Conclusion:

Along with anti-myeloma chemotherapy therapy, management of complications (anemia, infections, renal insufficiency) and other associated symptoms is necessary to improve the quality of life.

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