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IMS 2026, Part 3: New Treatment Approaches for Patients Early in Their Myeloma Journey
With many treatment options available, your care team will consider which approach may best control your myeloma while balancing side effects, quality of life, and future treatment options.
Researchers at the 2026 International Myeloma Society Annual Meeting presented data that evaluated how newer therapies and treatment approaches could be used earlier in the treatment journey to help patients achieve deeper, longer-lasting responses.
Can newer immunotherapies play a role from the very beginning of treatment?
One small study of 20 newly diagnosed patients explored Talvey (talquetamab), a bispecific antibody that targets a molecule on myeloma cells called GPRC5D, combined with Darzalex as initial treatment. After induction therapy, 90% of patients achieved MRD negativity. Importantly, side effects such as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) were generally low-grade and manageable.
Taste, skin, nail, and neurologic side effects associated with Talvey were also generally low-grade and manageable. Patients will undergo additional MRD testing after stem cell transplant to see how their responses change over time. While longer follow-up and larger studies are needed, these early findings suggest that a two-drug combination may be capable of producing very deep responses early in treatment, an intriguing finding given that current standard induction therapy typically includes four drugs.
Are there effective new options aside from bispecific antibodies and CAR T-cell therapy?
In another study, investigators compared Zenbexus + Darzalex + dexamethasone with Darzalex + Velcade + dexamethasone in patients who had received 1 or 2 previous treatments. Patients who received the Zenbexus combination were about twice as likely to achieve a complete response and test MRD-negative than those who did not. Infections were more common with Zenbexus, and peripheral neuropathy was less common.
Longer follow-up is underway to determine how the two treatment combinations compare in keeping myeloma from progressing. Importantly, results from this study supported the recent FDA approval of Zenbexus for use in myeloma treatment. (Learn more about Zenbexus.)
Together, these findings reflect a broader shift in myeloma research: Treatments once reserved for later in the disease course are increasingly being studied and even approved for earlier use. Some of these findings come from small or early-phase studies and will need longer follow-up. Even so, they offer an early look at how bringing newer therapies into treatment sooner could help more patients achieve deep responses and potentially keep their myeloma under control for longer.
More Takeaways From IMS