LAUSR

This article presents a practical overview of the treatment of younger, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients, focusing on novel treatment strategies. With the introduction of effective new agents, multiple myeloma is one of the most active and changing fields in clinical oncology. In addition, monitoring technology has become reliable and practical. Achieving and sustaining minimal residual disease negativity (MRD– ), such as multiparameter flow cytometry (MFC) < 10 −5 , is one of the goals of therapy. MRD–  is significantly associated with prolonged progression-free survival, whereas MRD persistence (MRD +) is an independent factor for poor progression-free survival. Evidence from several recent studies evaluating modern therapy has further supported the positive correlation between depth of response and outcomes. Multiple myeloma can become a chronic illness with sustained MRD– in a significant number of patients. Our ultimate hope is to leverage tumoricidal-immunomodulatory sequential therapies and to cure a subset of our patients.