NOVEL DRUG COMBINATIONS AND DONOR LYMPHOCYTE INFUSIONS ALLOW PROLONGED DISEASE CONTROL IN MULTIPLE MYELOMA PATIENTS RELAPSING AFTER ALLOGENEIC TRANSPLANT

Background: Even if allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) is curative for a minority of patients with multiple myeloma (MM), the patients who have relapsed after allo-SCT can experience long-term survival, suggesting a synergy between anti-myeloma drugs administered after allo-SCT and donor T cells. Objectives: We retrospectively evaluated the outcome of MM patients reported to the "Gruppo Italiano Trapianto Midollo Osseo e Terapia Cellulare" (GITMO) network, who underwent allo-SCTs between 2009 and 2018 in order to identify predictors for long-term outcome in the whole population (242 patients) and for prolonged overall survival (OS) after relapse in the subgroup of relapsed patients (118 patients). Results: At a median follow-up of 40.9 months after allo-SCT median OS and progression free survival (PFS) of the whole population were respectively 39.4 and 19.0 months from allo-SCT. The cumulative incidence (CI) of non-relapse mortality (NRM) was 10.3 % at one year and 27.6% at five years. Grade 2-4 acute GVHD CI was 19.8% and 5-year CI of moderate or severe chronic GVHD was 31.8%. In the multivariate model older age at transplant (p=0.020), treatment with more than 2 lines of therapy before allo-SCT (p=0.003) and transplant from unrelated or haploidentical donor (p=0.025) were significant factors associated with reduced OS. Relapse after allo-SCT occurred in 118 (59%) patients at a median of 14.3 months (IQR 7.2-26.9). Twenty (17%) received only steroids, radiotherapy or supportive care, 41 (35%) received 1 line, 23 (19%) 2 lines and 34 patients (29%) 3 or 4 lines of salvage treatment. Nine patients were exclusively treated with chemotherapy, 9 received at least one salvage treatment including immunomodulating agents (Imids), 43 patients were treated with at least one rescue therapy including proteasome inhibitors (PIs) and 37 patients received at least one salvage treatment including monoclonal antibodies (33 daratumumab, 1 elotuzumab, 1 isatuximab, 2 belantamab). Median OS of relapsed patients was 38.5 months from allo-SCT and 20.2 months from relapse. In multivariate analysis, OS after relapse was significantly prolonged in patients with a longer time to relapse after allo-SCT (time to relapse 6-24 months p=0.016; time to relapse ≥ 24 months p< 0.001) and in those who had received at least 3 salvage treatment lines (p<0.036) and donor lymphocyte infusions (DLI) (p=0.020). Conclusions: In our study, patients transplanted in early phases of disease and with HLA identical sibling donors had the best chance of long-term survival. Late relapse after allo-SCT, multiple courses of salvage treatment and the association with DLI could allow long disease control in patients who experienced relapse after allo-SCT.