Figure 3.

Therapeutic options of MM. Systemic therapy is the most common treatment option for MM patients. Systemic therapy is usually administered in a combined manner, with synthetic drugs and antibodies (green box), or in conjunction with stem cell transplant (cyan box). For example, bortezomib and dexamethasone constitute the adjuvant therapy for stem cell transplant patients in first-line therapy (shadowed in orange and connected by gray lines). On the other hand, melphalan and prednisone are recommended for non-transplant patients in first-line therapy (shadowed in orange and connected by gray lines). Alternatively, lenalidomide may be recommended with bortezomib and dexamethasone in non-transplant patients in first-line therapy (connected by gray lines) or administered alone during palliative care (shadowed in purple). Therapeutic options are color-coded in boxes according to their application and placed or shadowed under the categories of first-line (orange), second-line (cyan) and third-line (blue) therapy, or palliative care (purple), according to the frequency of recommendation for clinical use under the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. Combination therapies on the same line of therapy are connected by gray lines, whereas those spanning across different lines of therapy are not indicated.