Abstract The management of multiple myeloma is a complex endeavor, because the disease is incurable and unexpected relapses can threaten the patient's survival. Several assessment systems are currently available, but they often require invasive or expensive procedures (e.g. bone marrow and whole-body instrumental examinations) or depend on non-specific markers in blood and urine that may not be sufficient to assess and monitor the disease. To address these limitations, this study evaluates the potential utilization of sBCMA, a novel and promising serum biomarker, in an unselected cohort of newly diagnosed and relapsed myeloma patients. The cohort was followed for six months from the initiation of a new therapy. sBCMA was detectable in peripheral blood even in non-secretory disease or during BCMA-targeted therapies, and significant changes in its levels were observed. The analysis showed that the decrease in sBCMA at months 1 and 6 reflects the quality of the clinical response to the anti-myeloma regimens. The data provide compelling insights into the utility of sBCMA in early assessment of treatment efficacy.
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Caponi et al. (2024) studied this question.