Pomalidomide-Responsive Extramedullary Myeloma Relapsed after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Transplant and Refractory to Multiple Lines of Chemotherapy

Abstract

Patients who experience extramedullary relapses (EMR) of multiple myeloma (MM) have an adverse prognosis, also in this era of novel agents like proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs. We describe the case of an MM patient with EMR at 2 different sites after allogeneic stem cell transplantation. EMR was refractory to bortezomib, anthracycline, and bendamustine, but the patient achieved long-term complete remission (4 years) with pomalidomide and dexamethasone. This supports the hypothesis that this could be due to the graft-versus-myeloma effect during therapy enhanced by pomalidomide.

Keywords: Allogeneic stem cell transplantation; Extramedullary relapse; Myeloma; Pomalidomide.