Segment 5 - Benefits and Risks Associated with Treatment

The conversation shifts from diagnosis of multiple myeloma to the various benefits and risks associated with treatment. Dr Chernew comments that multiple myeloma treatment is an area of great innovation, where options for patients are constantly changing.

Dr Kumar suggests that treatment can be looked at broadly in 2 groups: changes that come due the introduction of new drugs and changes that come because of changes in the understanding of the disease itself. He provides a variety of examples for each category.

“I think it’s exciting that we have new drugs belonging to the same class which can be more easily administered and are more effective, but I think it’s also more important that we activate these new classes of drugs because that is one way of overriding the resistance that these cells develop,” says Dr Kumar.

The bottom line, he says, is that patients have time to see if treatment is working appropriately and working with their biology. Time will also help to determine how long patients will have to adhere to a specific regimen.