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PLOS One logoLink to PLOS One
. 2021 Oct 13;16(10):e0258487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258487

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab

Agoston Gyula Szabo 1,#, Tobias Wirenfeldt Klausen 2,#, Mette Bøegh Levring 3, Birgitte Preiss 4, Carsten Helleberg 2, Marie Fredslund Breinholt 5, Emil Hermansen 6, Lise Mette Rahbek Gjerdrum 7, Søren Thorgaard Bønløkke 8, Katrine Nielsen 8, Eigil Kjeldsen 8, Katrine Fladeland Iversen 1, Elena Manuela Teodorescu 9, Marveh Dokhi 10, Eva Kurt 11, Casper Strandholdt 12, Mette Klarskov Andersen 13, Annette Juul Vangsted 10,*
Editor: Francesco Bertolini14
PMCID: PMC8513840  PMID: 34644367

Abstract

Most patients cannot be included in randomized clinical trials. We report real-world outcomes of all Danish patients with multiple myeloma (MM) treated with daratumumab-based regimens until 1 January 2019.

Methods

Information of 635 patients treated with daratumumab was collected retrospectively and included lines of therapy (LOT), hematologic responses according to the International Myeloma Working Group recommendations, time to next treatment (TNT) and the cause of discontinuation of treatment. Baseline characteristics were acquired from the validated Danish Multiple Myeloma Registry (DMMR).

Results

Daratumumab was administrated as monotherapy (Da-mono) in 27.7%, in combination with immunomodulatory drugs (Da-IMiD) in 57.3%, in combination with proteasome inhibitors (Da-PI) in 11.2% and in other combinations (Da-other) in 3.8% of patients. The median number of lines of therapy given before daratumumab was 5 for Da-mono, 3 for Da-IMiD, 4 for Da-PI, and 2 for Da-other. In Da-mono, overall response rate (ORR) was 44.9% and median time to next treatment (mTNT) was 4.9 months. In Da-IMiD, ORR was 80.5%, and mTNT was 16.1 months. In Da-PI, OOR was 60.6% and mTNT was 5.3 months. In patients treated with Da-other, OOR was 54,2% and mTNT was 5.6 months. The use of daratumumab in early LOT was associated with longer TNT (p<0.0001). Patients with amplification 1q had outcome comparable to standard risk patients, while patients with t(4;14), t(14;16) or del17p had worse outcome (p = 0.0001). Multivariate analysis indicated that timing of treatment (timing of daratumumab in the sequence of all LOT that the patients received throughout the course of their disease) was the most important factor for outcome (p<0.0001).

Conclusion

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab are worse than the results of clinical trials. Outcomes achieved with daratumumab were best when daratumumab was used in combination with IMIDs and in early LOT. Patients with high-risk CA had worse outcomes, but patients with amp1q had similar outcomes to standard-risk patients.

Introduction

The excellent outcomes of patients treated with daratumumab in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) have changed the treatment strategy of multiple myeloma (MM). However, RCTs are conducted in selected patient populations according to strict inclusion and exclusion criteria. Several studies have shown that a significant part of patients with MM are ineligible for clinical trials and that these patients have worse OS [15]. The clinical efficacy of daratumumab-based therapy in most MM patients is therefore not well described, and real-world data are warranted. Daratumumab monotherapy (Da-mono) was approved in 2016 for patients who had received at least two previous lines of therapy. Daratumumab combination regimens were approved in 2017 for the treatment of MM patients at first relapse.

In this study, we report the clinical outcomes of patients treated with daratumumab-based therapy in a complete nationwide cohort. We performed detailed assessment of the entire clinical course of every patient in Denmark, who had initiated treatment with daratumumab-based regimens until 1 January 2019. The aims of our study were to report response rates and TNT in patients treated with daratumumab monotherapy (Da-mono), daratumumab in combination with immunomodulatory agents (Da-IMiD), and daratumumab in combination with proteasome inhibitors (Da-PI). Secondly, we wanted to assess the influence of timing of the first daratumumab-containing line of therapy on patient outcomes. Thirdly, we wanted to report causes of discontinuation of daratumumab treatment. Lastly, we wanted to focus on the outcomes of patients with the high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities (CA) t(4;14); t(14,16), del(17p) and amp1q. The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (18/22825) and the Danish Patient Safety Authority (3-3013-2047/2r). The ethics committee waived the requirement for informed consent.

Materials and methods

The study was approved by the Danish Data Protection Agency (18/22825) and the Danish Patient Safety Authority (3-3013-2047/2r). The ethics committee waived the requirement for informed consent.

In Denmark, the access to healthcare services is universal, population-based and publicly financed. Available treatment strategies are presented in S1 Table in S1 File. We can therefore present outcome of daratumumab monotherapy in many patients. Lenalidomide maintenance therapy after ASCT was approved after data cut-off for this study.

Patients treated with daratumumab were identified from the pharmacy registries of the participating departments. The study cut-off was 1 January 2019. Individual treatment data were collected by retrospective review of patient records performed by trained physicians from hematology departments in Denmark (Aalborg, Aarhus, Esbjerg, Herlev, Holstebro, Odense, Rigshospitalet, Roskilde, and Vejle). Data represent a population-based cohort of all patients treated with daratumumab in Denmark between 1 June 2018 and 1 November 2019. Data were entered in a Research Electronic Data Capture (REDcap) database (S2 Table in S1 File). Queries were sent for data completeness and corrections. Baseline characteristics were acquired from the validated Danish Multiple Myeloma Registry (DMMR), which includes clinical data for every patient diagnosed with MM since 2005 [6]. The dataset from the DMMR was merged with the study database Lines of therapy (LOT) and hematologic responses were evaluated according to the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) recommendations [7, 8]. For each LOT, the date of initiation, the used regimen, the hematologic responses, the date of discontinuation and the cause of discontinuation were registered. Toxicities were registered only if they were the cause of discontinuation of a LOT. Bone marrow biopsies for response assessment are not routinely performed in Denmark outside of clinical trials except for patients treated with high-dose melphalan with autologous stem cell transplantation (HDM-ASCT), therefore, responses were aggregated into three response categories for data analysis: very good partial response or better (≥VGPR), partial response (PR) and minimal response or worse (≤MR). Overall response rate was calculated by combining rates of ≥VGPR and PR. In case of discontinuation due to toxicity, the nature of the toxicity was specified in further detail. TNT was used as outcome parameter as the dates of initiation of a new LOT were uniformly registered in all patients. TNT was defined as the time from the date of initiation of a LOT until either the date of initiation of the subsequent LOT, the date of death or the date of last follow-up in patients still on the last LOT (S1 Fig in S1 File). Timing of treatment was the timing of daratumumab in the sequence of all LOT that the patients received throughout the course of their disease. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) data of CA were reviewed and registered by experienced consultants in cytogenetic analysis. When consecutive FISH analysis was done, the results from the most recent assessment before first exposure to daratumumab was used. The cut-off for chromosome deletions, chromosome translocations and chromosome amplifications were their presence in at least 10% of tumor cells. The CA t(4;14), t(14;16), and del(17p) were defined as high-risk CA. Based on the first daratumumab-containing LOT (Da), the patient cohort was arranged into three subgroups: patients treated with Da-mono, Da-IMiD or Da-PI.

Statistical analysis

Categorical variables where presented with number and percentages and compared between groups by Chi-square tests or Fisher’s exact test in the case of small numbers. Continuous variables were presented with median and interquartile range (IQR). Continuous variables were compared between multiple groups by Kruskal-Wallis tests and between two groups by Mann-Whitney test. Time to next treatment were presented by Kaplan-Meier curves. Median times and proportions at specific times were extracted from the Kaplan-Meier statistics and presented with 95% confidence interval (CI). Differences between groups were calculated by log-rank tests. Furthermore, a Cox proportional hazard model was calculated and hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals were presented. To find risk factors correlated to TNT, a univariate and a multivariable Cox proportional hazard model were applied. Only significant variables from the univariate models were entered in the multiple model. Time to follow up was calculated with the reverse Kaplan-Meier method. All p-values were two-sided and p-values ≤ 0.05 were considered statistically significant. R version 3.6.1 were used for all calculations.

Results and discussion

Patient characteristics and subgroups

Six hundred and thirty-five patients were treated with daratumumab. Of these, 225 patients (35.4%) were still on treatment with Da at data cut-off. Patients were diagnosed with MM between 1986 and 2018. The median age for all patients at diagnosis was 66 (interquartile range (IQR): 58–71) years, and the median age at initiation of Da was 70 years (IQR: 63–75). The median follow-up from start of Da was 18.0 months. The cohort consisted of 357 men and 278 women. The CA t(4;14), t(14;16), del(17p), and amp1q were assessed in 73.5%, 72,1%, 76.4% and 73.7% of patients, and were positive in 13.9%, 4.1%, 13.6% and 29.5% of patients, respectively (S3 Table in S1 File). A high-risk CA was present in 23.5% of patients still on Da as compared to 32.2% of patients who started a new LOT after Da (p = 0.048). Overall, patients received a median of 5 (range: 1–22) lines of therapy throughout the course of their disease (S4 Table in S1 File). Ten patients received daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide in first line as part of the Maia study. The outcome of these patients is presented in Fig 2. Three hundred and nine patients (48.7%) were treated with up-front HDM-ASCT within the first year from diagnosis. Of these, 254 (82%) received HDM-ASCT within 6 months from diagnosis.

Baseline characteristics of patients treated with Da-mono (176 patients), Da-IMiD (364 patients), Da-PI (71 patients), or Da-other (24 patients) are shown in summary in Table 1 and in S5 Table in S1 File. We compared the treatment groups Da-mono, Da-IMiD and Da-PI. Patients treated with Da-mono were older, fewer were treated with up-front HDM-ASCT, and fewer had elevated lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) at diagnosis. The median number of prior LOT was 5 in Da-mono, 3 in Da-IMiD, and 4 in Da-PI (p<0.0001). The percentage of patients exposed to all four drugs (quadruple-exposed) prior to Da was 18.2% in Da-mono, 3,7% in Da-IMiD and 7.0% in Da-PI. In most of the quadruple-exposed patients, Da was given as a ≥6th LOT (S8 Table in S1 File).

Table 1. Summary of characteristics and outcome of 635 patients treated with daratumumab.

N = 635 Da-mono Da-IMiD Da-PI Da-other p value1
N (%) 176 (27.7) 364 (57.3) 71 (11.2) 24 (3.8)
Age at start of treatment; median IQR 72 (67–77) 70 (63–74) 70 (62–75) 63 (51–74) 0.002
Gender male/female; (% male) 105/71 (59.7) 201/163 (55.2) 37/34 (52.1) 14/10 (41.7) 0.48
ISS 0.64
III; no (%) 42 (29.8) 99 (32.0) 18 (29.5) 7 (35.0)
High-risk CA: at least one of del17p, t(14;16), t(4;14);N (%) 31 (24.8) 81 (30.1) 18 (36.0) 5 (26.9) 0.30
[N missing] [51] [95] [21]
Amp1q; no (%) 40 (32.0) 79 (28.9) 14 (27.5) 5(26.9) 0.77
[N missing] [51] [91] [20]
Prior treatment before daratumumab
HDM-ASCT in first line 59 (33.5) 190 (52.2) 41 (57.7) 19 (79.2) <0.001
Bortezomib; N (%) 166 (94.3) 340**(96.0) 66 (93.0) 24 (100) 0.44
Lenalidomide; N (%) 157 (89.2) 158** (44.6) 56 (78.9) 18 (75.0) <0.0001
Carfilzomib; N (%) 57 (32.4) 72** (20.3) 14 (19.7) 6 (25.0) 0.006
Pomalidomide; N (%) 78 (44.3) 35** (9.9) 16 (22.5) 7 (29.2) <0.0001
IMiDs and PI; N (%) 158 (89.8) 159** (44.9) 55 (77.5) 19 (79.2) <0.0001
Quadruple-exposed; N (%) 32 (18.2) 13** (3.7) 5 (7.0) 3 (12.5) <0.0001
Number of lines of therapy given before daratumumab; median (range) 5 (2–16) 3 (1–11) 4 (2–10) 2 (1–3) <0.0001
Time from diagnosis to start of daratumumab; mo; median (IQR) 48.2 (26.8–79.8) 37.9 (18.1–69.4) 49.2 (30.2–91.1) 28.5 (7.7–86.7) 0.002
Median follow-up after start of daratumumab; mo 22.7 17.8 20.3 27.7
ORR, N (%) 79 (44.9) 293 (80.5) 43 (60.6) 13 (54.2) <0.0001
≥VGPR, N (%) 34 (19.3) 204 (56.0) 23 (32.4) 6 (25.0) <0.0001
TNT all lines, median mo (CI)[N] 4.9 (3.7–5.8) [176] 16.1 (13.7–20.3) [364] 5.3 (3.5–8.2) [71] 5.6 (2.8–12.7) [24] <0.0001
OS, median and CI 28.2 mdr (19.8–38.0) 33.2 (25.8-NR) 25.2 (17.8-NR) 16.3 (9.0-NR) <0.0001

N = number; IQR: interquartile range; mo: months. Quadruple-exposed = previously treated with both bortezomib, lenalidomide, pomalidomide and carfilzomib.

** without the 10 patients that received daratumumab at first line.

1The p-value describes the difference between Da-IMiDs, Da-PI, and Da-mono.

The use of daratumumab

A detailed description of the use of daratumumab is presented in S5, S8 Tables and S2 Fig in S1 File. The most frequently used regimen was Da-IMiD, except in sixth or later lines, where Da-mono was most commonly used. Da-PI was primarily used as a 3. line therapy and in 6. or later lines.

Response to daratumumab

The ORR to Da was 67.2%, including 42% ≥VGPR and 25.2% PR. Response rates with the different daratumumab-based regimens are shown in S7 Table (S1 File). The ORR and ≥VGPR rates were 44.9% and 19.3% in Da-mono, 80.5% and 56% in Da-IMiD, and 60.6% and 32.4% in Da-PI, respectively (p<0.0001). S3 Fig in S1 File illustrates ≥VGPR, PR and ≤MR for all treatment combinations. Increase in ≥VGPR rates was observed when Da was administered as early as possible (S7 Table and S4 Fig in S1 File). In patients with high-risk CA, the ORR and ≥VGPR rates were 32.3% and 12.9% in Da-mono, 72.8% and 51.9% in Da-IMiD, and 44.4% and 22.2% in Da-PI, respectively (p = 0.0002; S6 Table in S1 File). Among the 225 patients still on Da, 73.3% had ≥VGPR and 19.1% had PR at the time of cut-off.

Time to next treatment according to regimens and timing

The median TNT of Da was 9.8 months (95% CI: 8.4–11.8). The TNT and OS in different daratumumab-based regimens is shown in Fig 1. The median TNT was significantly longer for Da-IMiD compared to Da-mono, Da-PI and Da-other (p<0.0001) and a trend to better OS was found p = 0.08. Earlier use of Da was associated with longer TNT (Fig 2 and S6 Table in S1 File). Daratumumab monotherapy was predominantly used as 4. or later LOT. The median TNT for Da-mono decreased from 9.2 months in 4. line to 3.9 months in 6. and later LOT. Da-IMiD was predominantly used as a 2. LOT. The median TNT for Da-IMiD decreased from 25.9 months in 2. line to 6.4 months in 6. and later LOT. Da-PI was mainly used in 3. or later LOT. The median TNT for Da-PI decreased from 5.5 months in 3. line to 3.7 months in 6. and later LOT.

Fig 1. Time to next treatment and overall survival of the first daratumumab therapy.

Fig 1

Patients at risk is shown below the figure. Abbreviations: Da-other = daratumumab in other combinations than IMiD and PI; mo = months.

Fig 2. Time to next treatment depending on the timing of daratumumab therapy.

Fig 2

Patients at risk is shown below each figure. A: TNT for all combinations of daratumumab depending on timing. Cox-regression analysis showed longer TNT in early lines (p<0.0001).

Time to next treatment according to cytogenetic abnormalities

The TNT of daratumumab of patients with standard-risk, high-risk CA +/- amp1q are shown in Fig 3 and S9 Table in S1 File. The median TNT of Da was 7.6 months (CI: 5.6–11.9) in patients with a high-risk CA, 9.8 months (CI: 6.5–16.9) in patients with amp1q, and 11.7 months (CI: 9.5–15.6) in patients with standard-risk CA. The median TNT for patients with a high-risk CA was 3.7 months in Da-mono, 11.8 months in Da-IMiD and 4.0 months in Da-PI (p = 0.002; S5 Table in S1 File). Earlier timing of Da resulted in longer TNT in patients with standard-risk CA (p<0.0001), while the association was not significant in patients with high-risk CA (p = 0.07; S6A and S6B Fig and S10 Table in S1 File). However, the TNT for 2. line was 11.8 months compared to 4.2–6.6 months in 3. line and later LOT indicating that the lack of significance may be caused by the low number of patients with high-risk CA. The TNT of patients with amp1q was not different than the TNT of patients with standard-risk CA but TNT of patient with am1q was longer as compared to patients carrying high-risk CA combined and amp1q (P = 0.036; S10 Table in S1 File).

Fig 3. Time to next treatment of the first daratumumab therapy depending on cytogenetic abnormalities.

Fig 3

Patients at risk is shown below each figure. High-risk CA was defined as the presence of del17p, t(4:14) or t(14:16). Abbreviations: mo = months. A:TNT for for all combinations of daratumumab-containing line of therapy depending on CA. Compared with patients with standard-risk CA, patients with amp1q had similar TNT (p = 0.65). Patients with high-risk CA had a trend towards shorter TNT (p = 0.003).

Time to next treatment according to treatment with or without daratumumab

We explored TNT in daratumumab-based regimens with the TNT of regimens that did not include daratumumab in the same LOT. Daratumumab-based regimens resulted in longer TNT from 2. to 4. LOT, while the addition of daratumumab in the 5. and later LOT had no significant effect on TNT (S12 Table and S7 Fig in S1 File). In this non-randomized setting, the median TNT for Da compared to the same LOT without daratumumab was 25.9 versus 11.1 months in the 2. LOT 11.4 versus 8.8 months in the 3. LOT and 11.1 versus 7.7 months in the 4. LOT.

Univariate and multivariate analysis of factors affecting time to next treatment

We explored univariate and multivariate analysis of factors affecting TNT of Da, as presented in S13 Table in S1 File. Univariate analysis included timing of Da (p<0.0001), the daratumumab-based regimen (p<0.0001), HDM-ASCT in first LOT (p = 0.92), age (p = 0.34), IgA M-protein isotype (p = 0.037), high-risk CA (p = 0.005) and amp1q (p = 0.19). In multivariate analysis, timing of Da (p<0.0001) and the daratumumab-based regimen (p<0.0001) had a significant effect on TNT. A borderline significance was found for high-risk CA (p = 0.052).

Reasons for discontinuation of daratumumab

Four hundred and ten patients discontinued Da (S14 Table in S1 File). The three most frequent causes of discontinuation of Da were progressive disease in 245 patients (59.8%), toxicity in 56 patients (13.7%) and insufficient response in 49 patients (12.0%). Progressive disease was the most frequent cause of discontinuation in all treatment groups. In patient´s treated with Da-mono, Da-IMiD, and Da-PI, 3.4%, 9.6%, and 15.5% discontinued treatment due to toxicity, respectively. The most frequent toxicities causing discontinuation of Da were infections (30.4%), peripheral neuropathy (16.1%), bone marrow suppression (10.7%), and gastrointestinal symptoms (10.7%), as shown in S15 Table in S1 File.

Discussion

Our work presents data from all Danish myeloma patients treated with daratumumab-based therapy.

The outcomes of patients treated with Da-mono were slightly better than those reported in the GEN501 and SIRIUS studies where daratumumab was used as monotherapy [911]. The ORR to Da-mono in our study was higher (44.9% versus 31.1%) while the TNT was comparable to the previously reported results (median TNT 4.9 versus median PFS 4.0 months) [11]. Compared with the GEN501 and SIRIUS studies, patients in our cohort were older (median 72 versus 64 years), the percentage of patients with ISS III stage disease was lower (29.8% versus 38%), fewer patients had been treated with HDM-ASCT (33.5% versus 78%), fewer patients had received >3 LOT prior to daratumumab treatment (54.0% versus 76%) and less patients were quadruple-exposed (18.3% versus 31%). In summary, we believe that timing of treatment may explain the slightly better real-world outcomes in our cohort of patients than in in the GEN501 and SIRIUS studies [911].

In the POLLUX study, where daratumumab was combined with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, the TNT was considerably longer compared to our cohort of patients (56.6 versus 16.1 months) [12, 13]. ORR was 92.9% in the POLLUX study compared to 80.5% in our cohort [12, 13]. Patients in our cohort were older (median 70 versus 65 years), had higher percentage of ISS stage III disease (32% versus 19.6%), more patients had high-risk CA (30.1% versus 15.4%), fewer patients were previously treated with HDM-ASCT (52.2% versus 62.9%) and the median LOT before daratumumab was higher (3 versus 1). Importantly, the follow-up in our cohort was considerably shorter (17.8 versus 44.3 months) and more than 35% of our patients were still on Da at data cut-off. Of these patients, 79.1% were on treatment with Da-IMiD. We find that the differences in timing, percentage of patients with high-risk CA, and shorter follow-up are the most import factors for poorer outcome in our cohort of patients.

Patients treated in the CASTOR study, where daratumumab was combined with bortezomib and dexamethasone, had a better outcome compared to our cohort of patients treated with Da-PI [14, 15]. The median follow-up time in our study and the CASTOR study were similar (20.3 versus 19.4 months). The ORR to Da-PI in our cohort was lower (60.6% versus 83.8%) and the TNT was shorter (median 5.3 months versus median PFS 16.1 months). Patients in our cohort were older (median 70 versus 64 years), had higher ISS stage III disease (29.5% versus 23.5%), more patients had high-risk CA (36.0% versus 22.7%) and were heavily pre-treated with a median number of prior LOT of 4 versus 2 in the CASTOR study. It is worth noticing that in our cohort of patients, 93% had prior exposure to bortezomib compared to 67.3% in the CASTOR study. The difference in outcomes between our patients and the outcomes reported in the CASTOR study can be explained by timing of treatment, previous exposure to multiple drugs and the number of patients with high-risk CA.

Toxicities accounted for discontinuation in 8.8% of all patients. Of these, infections were the most frequent toxicity, followed by neuropathy and bone marrow suppression. Toxicities to Da-mono and Da-IMiD were similar to those observed in clinical trials. We report that 15.5% of patients treated with Da-PI stopped treatment due to toxicity compared to 7.4% in the CASTOR study [14]. In contrast with the CASTOR study, in which discontinuations due to peripheral neuropathy occurred in 0.4% of patients, we found that the leading cause of discontinuation of Da-PI was peripheral neuropathy (5.6%). This difference in toxicity may be explained by a higher exposure to bortezomib before Da in our cohort.

Conclusion

We find that the real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab are worse than the results of clinical trials. Outcomes achieved with daratumumab were best when daratumumab was used in combination with IMIDs and in early lines of therapy. Patients with high-risk CA had worse outcomes, but patients with amp1q had similar outcomes to standard-risk patients. The poorer clinical performance of daratumumab-based therapies in our cohort compared with the results of phase 2 and 3 studies may be explained by later timing of daratumumab, higher percentage of patients with high-risk CA and shorter follow-up in the real-world setting.

Supporting information

S1 File

(PDF)

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.

Funding Statement

We have received funding from The Danish Cancer Society, an independent democratic membership organization, whose course is charted by the volunteers and members. From The Danish Cancer society my department received financial support for me being off clinical work one day per week to do the scientific work presented here. Furthermore, we paid for statistical analysis and for collection of clinical data from all haematological department in Denmark. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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  • 15.Weisel KC, Sonneveld P, Mateos M-V, Hungria VTM, Spencer A, Estell J, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Daratumumab, Bortezomib, and Dexamethasone (D-Vd) Versus Bortezomib and Dexamethasone (Vd) in First Relapse Patients (pts) with Multiple Myeloma (MM): Four-Year Update of Castor. Blood. 2019;134: 3192–3192. doi: 10.1182/blood-2019-123527 [DOI] [Google Scholar]

Decision Letter 0

Francesco Bertolini

Transfer Alert

This paper was transferred from another journal. As a result, its full editorial history (including decision letters, peer reviews and author responses) may not be present.

27 Apr 2021

PONE-D-21-09072

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Vangsted,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process, and in particular those from  by Reviewer #2.

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We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Francesco Bertolini, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

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Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: The Authors report real-world outcomes of all Danish patients (n= 635) with multiple myeloma (MM) treated with daratumumab-based regimens until 1 January 2019. Information was collected retrospectively and included lines of therapy (LOT), hematologic responses according to the International Myeloma Working Group recommendations, time to next treatment (TNT) and the cause of discontinuation of treatment.

The median number of LOT given before daratumumab was 5 for Da-mono, 3 for Da-IMiD, 4 for Da-PI, and 2 for Da-other. In Da-mono, overall response rate (ORR) was 44.9% and median time to next treatment (mTNT) was 4.9 months. In Da-IMiD, ORR was 80.5%, and mTNT was 16.1 months. In Da-PI, OOR was 60.6% and mTNT was 5.3 months. In patients treated with Da-other, OOR was 54,2% and mTNT was 5.6 months. Early use of daratumumab was associated with longer TNT (p�0.0001).

The Authors conclude that the real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab are worse than the results of clinical trials. Outcomes achieved with daratumumab were best when daratumumab was used in combination with IMIDs and in early lines of therapy.

The study design is appropriate and includes a correct statistical analsysis. The manuscript is clearly written.

Reviewer #2: Szabo et al described a national experience with daratumumab alone or in combination with other drugs for the treatment of patients with multiple myeloma. They included a series of 635 patients, with 75% of them with cytogenetic data available. In a global perspective, this study draws attention to the real world results of one of the most used drug for multiple myeloma in Western countries. They also describe the importance of bias selection when including a patient in a clinical trial vs. those in the real clinical practice. With the limitations of registry study, they have built a clear manuscript for hematology community in other countries where daratumumab is approved and commercialized.

Some issues could improve the article. Some major and minor points over the manuscript are:

1. Overall survival results should be showed and included. In relapsed/refractory disease, quality of life and survival are the two main objectives. Showing only time to next treatment is a big limitation of the study and the real impact of daratumumab could be biased. A impact beyond PFS and TNT in terms of OS has been found in the original trials and the OS could help to

explore is that is also happening in real world practice.

2. The authors are dealing mainly with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma. That should be stated in the title, the abstract, the methods section and elsewhere. Patients in first line should not be included in this manuscript as it seems not approved in Denmark at that time.

3. "Timing to treatment" in abstract and results section should be defined. It is related to the number of previous lines of treatment, that would be easier. The other option is the time from diagnosis. But it should be stated more clearly.

4. Are patients from clinical trials excluded in this study? This should be clarified in the methods section.

5. Novelty statement should be rewrite, including the number of patients studied and the number of patients with cytogenetic data available.

6. amp1q results are intriguing. As available with the same technique, the authors should try to include the information about del1p. Also, the power of amp1q plus other abnormalities vs. the amp1q by itself could be also of interest.

7. A chart of the approved treatment during that period of time in Denmark for multiple myeloma in first line and at relapse should be included.

8. "Lenalidomide maintenance" (page 6 line 111): it should be described "after ASCT".

9. The authors considered at least 10% of cytogenetic abnormalities for prognostication. However, the level is quite in debate in the myeloma community, including even 55% of del17p in some big series. Exploration of other cutoff could be useful, particularly with amp1q or even del17p.

10. Page 10, line 185: Da-mono is nor a "combination".

11. What regimens were available after 4th LOT for patients with MM vs. daratumumab in monotherapy? (otherwise, 2., 3., 4. system is confused)

12. Peripheral neuropathy (16%!) as a toxicity related to daratumumab is quite inconsistent. Authors should describe how many patients developed this complications outside bortezomib treatment. I know that in a registry study is difficult to analyze what was the drug associated with the problem; however, if almost all the cases are in Dara-bortezomib group, it should be stated. Was Bortezomib administered s.c. or i.v.?

13. Table 1 and Table 2 (and even Table 3)are extremely busy. They should be moved to supplementary data and only a summary should b showed in the manuscript. Figures 2B, 2C and 2D could be also moved to supplementary data.

14. Figure 3 should be clearer. Combining timing and CA abnormalities should be more to supplementary data. Here, a clear data with the impact of CA according to 2 or 3 groups could be more useful graphically.

15..

**********

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Reviewer #1: Yes: Carmelo Carlo-Stella, MD

Reviewer #2: No

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PLoS One. 2021 Oct 13;16(10):e0258487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258487.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


1 Jun 2021

Dear Francesco Bertolini, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Thank you the constructive reviewer´s comments, and the opportunity to revise our manuscript.

I here send you the revised manuscript. Included is one copy where all changes are highlighted and one clean copy, and below I have commented on the reviewer´s criticism. The changes in response to the reviewers are highlighted in colour.

We thank the reviewers for the suggestions that have improved the manuscript considerably.

1. Overall survival results should be showed and included. In relapsed/refractory disease, quality of life and survival are the two main objectives. Showing only time to next treatment is a big limitation of the study and the real impact of daratumumab could be biased. A impact beyond PFS and TNT in terms of OS has been found in the original trials and the OS could help to

explore is that is also happening in real world practice. We agree with the reviewer that OS is important. We have inserted OS in Figure 1 and in the text. However, even in real life it requires a long follow up, which will result in data that are uninteresting as we now move into the field of treatment with BiTes and Celmods. Our aim with this publication is to present TNT for daratumumab. Figure 1A show the TNT for the same groups and has not been changed.

We have included OS for

1. Dara + IMids+ dex

2. Dara + Btz + dex

3. Dara + dex

4. Other

from date of start of daratumumab treatment. The data are presented in the text and in figure 1 B. We have calculated the significance in OS between the groups. We have calculated median OS for all patients and inserted in the Table 1 and in in the text.

2. The authors are dealing mainly with refractory and relapsed multiple myeloma. That should be stated in the title, the abstract, the methods section and elsewhere. Patients in first line should not be included in this manuscript as it seems not approved in Denmark at that time. Our aim was to include all patient treated with daratumumab nationwide within a given time period and therefore 10 patients (1.6%) treated with daratumumab at first line within clinical trials are included. We believe that it is fair to include these patients and include them in one figure to illustrate that the TNT is longer for patients treated in first line. Inclusion of the 10 patients treated with daratumumab as first line dose not change our conclusions.

3. "Timing to treatment" in abstract and results section should be defined. It is related to the number of previous lines of treatment, that would be easier. The other option is the time from diagnosis. But it should be stated more clearly. Timing of treatment is defined as timing of daratumumab in the sequence of all LOT that the patients received throughout the course of their disease. The sentence is inserted in the abstract as well as in the method section.

4. Are patients from clinical trials excluded in this study? This should be clarified in the methods section. 10 patients (1.6%) treated with daratumumab at first line within clinical trials are included. We kindly refer to question no 2.

5. Novelty statement should be rewrite, including the number of patients studied and the number of patients with cytogenetic data available. We have included the number of patients in the study and the number of patients with available cytogenetic analysis.

6. amp1q results are intriguing. As available with the same technique, the authors should try to include the information about del1p. Also, the power of amp1q plus other abnormalities vs. the amp1q by itself could be also of interest. This is a very interesting question. Unfortunately, analysis of del1p is not routine practice in Denmark and we cannot provide the results. However, we have included the power of amp1q plus other abnormalities vs. the amp1q. The results are inserted in the text and in supplementary Table 6. The following text is inserted at line 227: but TNT of patient with am1q was longer as compared to patients carrying high-risk CA combined and amp1q (P=0.036; Supplementary Table 9)

Amp1q 75 9.8 6.5-16.9 1

High-risk + amp1q 55 5.6 3.6-12.4 1.56 (1.03-2.35) 0.036

7. A chart of the approved treatment during that period of time in Denmark for multiple myeloma in first line and at relapse should be included. A chart has been included as supplementary Table X

8. "Lenalidomide maintenance" (page 6 line 111): it should be described "after ASCT". Thanks for the precision, we have inserted after ASCT in the text as suggested.

9. The authors considered at least 10% of cytogenetic abnormalities for prognostication. However, the level is quite in debate in the myeloma community, including even 55% of del17p in some big series. Exploration of other cutoff could be useful, particularly with amp1q or even del17p. We agree with the referee. It is debated in the myeloma community, and many earlier trials do not even include the cut-off of the analysis. Some authors claim that it is irrelevant whether the cut-off is 10 or 60%. The argument is that if the treatment does not work in patients with f. ex. del17p this clone will be the prevailing clone at relapse.

10. Page 10, line 185: Da-mono is nor a "combination". Thanks, we have changed the word “combination” to the word “regimen”

11. What regimens were available after 4th LOT for patients with MM vs. daratumumab in monotherapy? (otherwise, 2., 3., 4. system is confused) The available standard regimens used in the study period are shown in supplementary table 1 and Supplementary table XX, as reported above. The treating physicians could use the standard regimens or off-label combinations on a case-by-case basis.

We are not sure that we understand the question. Other treatment strategies include doctor´s choice of treatment

12. Peripheral neuropathy (16%!) as a toxicity related to daratumumab is quite inconsistent. Authors should describe how many patients developed this complications outside bortezomib treatment. I know that in a registry study is difficult to analyze what was the drug associated with the problem; however, if almost all the cases are in Dara-bortezomib group, it should be stated. Was Bortezomib administered s.c. or i.v.? In this retrospective analysis toxicities were only registered if they were the cause of discontinuation of a line of therapy. This may have been unclear for the readers, and we therefore added an extra sentence to clarify this in methods and in the legends of Supplementary Table 15.

Supplementary Table 15 is to be viewed in relation to Supplementary Table 14. As shown in Supplementary Table 14, toxicity (in general) was the cause of discontinuation of the first daratumumab-containing line of therapy in 56 cases, which was 13.7% of all discontinuations. Supplementary Table 15 shows the type of toxicity in the 56 cases. Neuropathy was reported as the toxicity leading to discontinuation in 9 cases in total, across all daratumumab regimens, representing 16.1% of discontinuations due to toxicity. In total, this patient number represented 1.4% of the entire cohort of daratumumab-treated patients. The distribution of the 9 cases of neuropathy across the daratumumab regimens is shown in this table: 1 patient in Da-mono, 4 patients in Da-IMiD, 4 patients in Da-PI.

Although this was not registered specifically, all patient in this study were treated with subcutaneous bortezomib, which has been the standard of care in Denmark since 2011.

13. Table 1 and Table 2 (and even Table 3)are extremely busy. They should be moved to supplementary data and only a summary should b showed in the manuscript. Figures 2B, 2C and 2D could be also moved to supplementary data. We have prepared a summary of the results and moved the full tables as well as Figures 2B, 2C and 2D the supplementary material

14. Figure 3 should be clearer. Combining timing and CA abnormalities should be more to supplementary data. Here, a clear data with the impact of CA according to 2 or 3 groups could be more useful graphically.

We understand that the figure may be busy, but we find that it is important to show standard risk as well as TNT for patients with high risk cytogenetic +/- amp1q and amp1q alone. We have removed patients with missing.

TNT standard

TNT for patient with high risk cytogenetic t(4;14); t(14;16); del(17p) and amp1q

TNT for patients amp1q

TNT for high risk cytogenetic t(4;14); t(14;16); del(17p)

We have removed the figures combining timing and CA abnormalities to supplementary data

Attachment

Submitted filename: Rebuttal letter.docx

Decision Letter 1

Francesco Bertolini

30 Jun 2021

PONE-D-21-09072R1

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Vangsted,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process by Reviewer #2.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 14 2021 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Francesco Bertolini, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments (if provided):

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: (No Response)

Reviewer #2: The authors have included many of the suggestions and modified the vast majority of critical points arisen during the first revision of the manuscript. Particularly, the inclusion of overall survival analysis and some methodological modifications. It seems much clearer now for me and I think for the readers too.

I am still worried about the 10 patients included in first line and within a clinical trial. I think even you could mention these patients in the manuscript, they are exceptions of the inclusion criteria in your study and, instead of improving the quality, this information diverts from the main goal of the paper.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 13;16(10):e0258487. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258487.r004

Author response to Decision Letter 1


13 Sep 2021

Dear Francesco Bertolini, MD, PhD

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Thank you the reviewer´s comments, and the opportunity to revise our manuscript.

I here send you the revised manuscript. Included is one copy where all changes are highlighted and one clean copy, and below I have commented on the reviewer´s criticism. The changes in response to the reviewers are highlighted in colour.

Reviewer #2: The authors have included many of the suggestions and modified the vast majority of critical points arisen during the first revision of the manuscript. Particularly, the inclusion of overall survival analysis and some methodological modifications. It seems much clearer now for me and I think for the readers too.

I am still worried about the 10 patients included in first line and within a clinical trial. I think even you could mention these patients in the manuscript, they are exceptions of the inclusion criteria in your study and, instead of improving the quality, this information diverts from the main goal of the paper.

We understand the concern from the reviewer´s and we thank you for your comments. Our inclusion criteria were treatment of daratumumab irrespectively of line of therapy. We have inserted a comment about these patients in the results.

Ten patients received daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide in first line as part of the Maia study. The outcome of these patients is presented in figure 2.

Attachment

Submitted filename: Rebuttal letter.docx

Decision Letter 2

Francesco Bertolini

29 Sep 2021

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab

PONE-D-21-09072R2

Dear Dr. Vangsted,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: Yes

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Reviewer #2: The authors reported "Ten patients received daratumumab in combination with lenalidomide in first line as part of the Maia study. The outcome of these patients is presented in figure 2." in the new version of the manuscript. However, as stated in the abstract and in the introduction "we report real-world outcomes of all Danish patients with multiple myeloma (MM) treated with daratumumab-based regimens until January 2019.". Results coming from MAIA trials are not exactly from "real-world data". In fact, in the conclusion they stated again: "The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab are worse than the results of clinical trials." I do not think that it is coherent to add patients in first line treated in a clinical trial in a series of real-world data, mainly relapsed/refractory.

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Reviewer #2: No

Acceptance letter

Francesco Bertolini

4 Oct 2021

PONE-D-21-09072R2

The real-world outcomes of multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab

Dear Dr. Vangsted:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

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on behalf of

Dr. Francesco Bertolini

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 File

    (PDF)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Rebuttal letter.docx

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Rebuttal letter.docx

    Data Availability Statement

    All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting information files.


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