Clinical Decision-making, Prognosis, Quality of Life and Satisfaction in Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma

While quality of life (QoL) and other types of patient-reported Outcomes (PROs) can be crucial in the management of RRMM patients, a perusal of the literature indicates a dearth of information in this area. PRO is defined by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as "a measurement based on a report that comes directly from the patient (i.e., study subject) about the status of a patient's health condition without amendment or interpretation of the patient's response by a clinician or anyone else. A PRO can be measured by self-report or by interview provided that the interviewer records only the patient's response. Until now the few studies that have included PRO data have been conducted in newly diagnosed MM patients enrolled in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

For the purpose of this protocol, we have conducted a systematic review of PRO studies conducted in RRMM patients receiving treatments with either Imunomodulatory agents (IMiDs) or Proteasome inhibitors (PIs). The search was conducted for studies published from January, 1990 to July, 2015 and yielded only eight studies published within this timeframe. Three studies dealt with bortezomib based regimens, two with thalidomide, and the remaining studies with carfilzomib, pomalidomide, and lenalidomide. In all these studies PROs were considered as secondary outcomes and in four this was analyzed in the context of RCTs.

Despite enhanced disease control, none of the current novel agents, either IMiDs or PIs are free of significant toxicities, which frequently persist after completing treatment and continue to impair patient's daily functioning over the long-term period. Also, it is important to consider the poor prognosis for many of these patients. For example, patients who fail first-line PIs or IMiDs have been shown to report an average life expectancy of 9 months from the time of becoming refractory to PIs and IMiDs. Maintaining a "good" or "acceptable" level of QoL and lowering symptom burden over the longest possible period of time is a main goal of treatment for RRMM patients. Therefore, considering the paucity of QoL evidence-base data, CLARITY is designed to expand on some key understudied areas in this population that are broadly summarized in the next two paragraphs.