Compared with standard therapy of lenalidomide and dexamethasone, the addition of carfilzomib improved survival, without increasing the risk of adverse events (AEs) in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM), according to final results from the phase III ASPIRE trial.1
“At interim analysis … the addition of carfilzomib significantly improved progression-free survival (PFS) compared with [lenalidomide and dexamethasone],” the study investigators, led by David S. Siegel, MD, PhD, of John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, wrote in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.2 “Despite prolonged treatment exposure in the [carfilzomib] group, rates of discontinuation because of AEs were lower … and the frequency of AE-related deaths was identical in the two groups,” they noted.