The Genomic and Transcriptional Landscape of Waldenström’s Macroglobulinemia Impacts Disease Presentation, Overall Survival, and Therapeutic Response

Abstract

toxic deaths. Methods: 1173 newly diagnosed MM patients entered the Gruppo Italiano Malattie EMatologiche dell’Adulto (GIMEMA) and European Myeloma Network (EMN) trials from May 2006 to September 2012. Overall, 511 patients received bortezomiband 662 patients lenalidomide-containing regimens. Results: 1146 patients started therapy and could be evaluated for this analysis. Death within 24 months of start of therapy occurred in 207 patients (18%). Among them, 61 patients (5%) died due to adverse events. Toxic deaths within 60 days occurred in 12 patients (1%) with a linear increase over time of 1% every 6 months. Thirty percent of deaths were attributable to cardiac complications (18 pts), 28% to infections (17 pts) and 15% to vascular complications (9 pts). There was no difference in the incidence of toxic deaths between patients receiving bortezomib (31 pts, 6%) or lenalidomide-containing regimens (30 pts, 5%, p1⁄40.32), nor in the proportions of toxic events. The incidence of toxic deaths was significantly higher in patients older than 80 years (11/107 [10%], p1⁄40.005). In multivariate analysis, factors associated with increased risk of early mortality were age (HR 1.09 per 1 year increase, p1⁄40.002) and ISS stage (HR 3.81, p1⁄40.01 ISS 2 vs ISS 1; HR 5.69, p1⁄40.002 ISS 3 vs ISS 1). Poor performance status was not a predictor of early death (HR 1.25, p1⁄40.59). By analyzing the impact of response, toxic deaths within 6 months occurred in patients with a suboptimal response (overall response rate 29%). Conclusions: Novel agents have substantially reduced the risk of toxic deaths as compared to conventional therapy. Nevertheless one-third of early deaths occurred due to cumulative specific drug-related toxicities. Cardio-vascular events and infections are the main causes. Greater tumor burden and activity (defined by ISS stage) increased the risk of death. The 2-fold higher risk of toxic mortality in octogenarians indicates the need for a careful assessment of frailty to identify patients who may benefit from a gentler approach.