Ixazomib Maintenance Therapy in Chinese Patients with Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma Not Treated with Stem Cell Transplantation: A Single-Arm, Open-Label Study

Introduction: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a life-threatening cancer of plasma cells in the bone marrow. It often leads to bone marrow failure and bone destruction. Lenalidomide is the only drug approved by Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Medical Association (EMA) as maintenance therapy for MM post stem cell transplantation (SCT), however it is not approved as maintenance for patients who are ineligible for high-dose therapy followed by SCT and is also not suitable for all patients due to toxicity and new primary malignancy (NPM) concerns. Hence, new maintenance agents are needed to offer patients continuous disease control while maintaining their health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Ixazomib, an oral protease inhibitor, was approved by FDA for MM patients with at least one prior therapy. The present study assessed the long-term safety, tolerability and efficacy of ixazomib maintenance therapy in Chinese newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) patients who had not undergone SCT.