Dr. Mikhael on Remaining Challenges in High-Risk Multiple Myeloma

Joseph Mikhael, MD, professor, Applied Cancer Research and Drug Discovery Division, Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope Cancer Center, chief medical officer, International Myeloma Foundation, discusses remaining challenges in high-risk multiple myeloma.

Within the past decade, the average survival of patients with multiple myeloma has significantly improved compared with historic rates, says Mikhael. However, survival has not been improved to the same degree in patients with high-risk disease.

Additionally, patients with extramedullary disease, who can also be considered high risk, remain a challenging patient population to treat, Mikhael explains. Extramedullary disease presents de novo outside of the medullary space. Moreover, these patients can be challenging to image, measure, and treat as they may have heavy disease burden. Future research efforts should aim to identify a treatment strategy for patients with extramedullary disease, concludes Mikhael.