New Developments in Myeloma Treatment and Response Assessment

Abstract

Recent innovative strategies have dramatically redefined the therapeutic landscape for treating multiple myeloma patients. In particular, the development and application of immunotherapy and high-dose therapy have demonstrated high response rates and have prolonged remission duration. Over the past decade, new morphologic or hybrid imaging techniques have gradually replaced conventional skeletal surveys. PET/CT using ¹⁸F-FDG is a powerful imaging tool for the workup at diagnosis and for therapeutic evaluation allowing medullary and extramedullary assessment. The independent negative prognostic value for progression-free and overall survival derived from baseline PET-derived parameters such as the presence of extramedullary disease or paramedullary disease, as well as the number of focal bone lesions and SUV_max, has been reported in several large prospective studies. During therapeutic evaluation, ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT is considered the reference imaging technique because it can be performed much earlier than MRI, which lacks specificity. Persistence of significant abnormal ¹⁸F-FDG uptake after therapy is an independent negative prognostic factor, and ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT and medullary flow cytometry are complementary tools for detecting minimal residual disease before maintenance therapy. The definition of a PET metabolic complete response has recently been standardized and the interpretation criteria harmonized. The development of advanced PET analysis and radiomics using machine learning, as well as hybrid imaging with PET/MRI, offers new perspectives for multiple myeloma imaging. Most recently, innovative radiopharmaceuticals such as C-X-C chemokine receptor type 4–targeted small molecules and anti-CD38 radiolabeled antibodies have shown promising results for tumor phenotype imaging and as potential theranostics.