Imetelstat Linked to Sustained Health-Related Quality-of-Life Benefits in Lower-Risk MDS: María Díez Campelo, MD, PhD

During part 2 of an interview, María Díez Campelo, MD, PhD, of the University Hospital of Salamanca, summarizes the findings of her analysis, "Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes in Patients With Lower-Risk Myelodysplastic Syndromes Treated With Imetelstat in the IMerge Trial," which she presented last month at the European Hematology Association 2025 Congress in Milan.

Campelo explains that the observed quality-of-life benefits were directly associated with imetelstat (Rytelo; Geron) itself, rather than with the baseline characteristics of patients who responded to treatment.

Watch part 1 to learn about the abstract's background and objectives.

This transcript was lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

What were the key findings from your analysis? Were there any results that particularly stood out or surprised you?

With this analysis, we confirmed that more patients in the imetelstat arm had improved [total and physical burden] QUALMS [QOL in Myelodysplasia Scale] scores as compared to the placebo arm. A greater proportion of patients [treated with imetelstat] achieved and sustained a meaningful improvement in these scores as compared to the placebo arm.

We also identified that [patients treated with] imetelstat maintain a quality of life over time, while patients receiving a placebo experience a decline. This was very relevant for the total QUALMS and the physical QUALMS scores. Interestingly, also, this improvement in these scores occurred earlier in patients receiving imetelstat compared with placebo. This benefit was consistent across different baseline subgroups regarding transfusion burden, endogenous EPO [erythropoietin] levels, and other points.

Interestingly, I think that the most important thing is that we are able to identify that this benefit is clearly associated [with] the drug, not with the responding patients, because we analyze that this improvement in quality of life is clearly associated with the response to the drug. We compared patients responding and not responding to imetelstat, and patients responding to imetelstat had higher improvements in total, physical, and emotional [QUALMS] scores as compared to the nonresponsives.

This is especially of interest in patients acquiring transfusions. This is the population in which we identified a higher proportion on imetelstat that reported sustaining meaningful improvement on this QUALMS score as compared to nonresponsives. I think this is the major goal for this analysis, to identify that the benefit and quality of life are associated [with] the treatment response.