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High-Dose Bendamustine, Etoposide, Cytarabine, and Melphalan (BeEAM) Conditioning Before Autologous Transplantation for Patients With Multiple Myeloma

Solomon SR, Brown S, Shegda N, Jackson KC, Zhang X, Bashey A, Holland HK, Morris LE et al.

Transplantation and cellular therapy, 2022

Abstract

Single-agent high-dose melphalan (Mel) followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) remains a standard of care in eligible patients with multiple myeloma (MM), and efforts to improve transplant outcomes by intensifying transplant conditioning have mostly failed. Bendamustine combines both alkylating and antimetabolite properties, can induce responses in MM resistant to other alkylators and represents a promising agent to combine with Mel prior to ASCT. We performed a phase II study to test the safety and efficacy of the high-dose chemotherapy combination of bendamustine, etoposide, cytarabine, and melphalan (BeEAM) in newly diagnosed MM patients up to 70 years of age. The primary study endpoint was the day 100 complete response rate. Sixty-five patients with a median (range) age of 59 (40-69) years underwent transplantation from 2015 to 2020. Other characteristics included Karnofsky performance status <80%, hematopoietic cell transplantation-comorbidity index ≥3, International Staging System III, and high-risk fluorescein in situ hybridization (FISH) in 35%, 46%, 26%, and 44%, respectively. ASCT after BeEAM was well tolerated, and there were no non-relapse deaths through 1 year after transplantation. Although at least 1 nonhematologic grade 3 toxicity was reported in 58 (89%) patients (including grade 3 febrile neutropenia in 48% and stomatitis/esophagitis in 28%), there were no grade ≥3 renal or hepatic toxicity and no grade ≥4 non-hematologic toxicity. The day…

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