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. 2021 Jan;192(2):272-280.
doi: 10.1111/bjh.16752. Epub 2020 May 22.

Normalization of serum B-cell maturation antigen levels predicts overall survival among multiple myeloma patients starting treatment

Scott Jew  1   2 , Tiffany Chang  2 , Sean Bujarski  1   2 , Camilia Soof  1 , Haiming Chen  1 , Tahmineh Safaie  3 , Mingjie Li  1 , Eric Sanchez  1 , Cathy Wang  1 , Tanya M Spektor  4 , Marsiye Emamy-Sadr  2 , Regina Swift  2 , Ashkon Rahbari  1 , Saurabh Patil  1 , Eric Souther  3 , James R Berenson  1   2   3
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Normalization of serum B-cell maturation antigen levels predicts overall survival among multiple myeloma patients starting treatment

Scott Jew et al. Br J Haematol. 2021 Jan.

Abstract

Serum B-cell maturation antigen (sBCMA) is a novel biomarker for B-cell malignancies. A normal reference range (<82·59 ng/ml) has been recently established but the impact of achieving normal levels to outcomes for patients receiving treatment for B-cell malignancies has not been studied. We first found that among multiple myeloma (MM) patients starting a new treatment, those who begin treatment within normal sBCMA limits (<82·59 ng/ml) have improved progression-free survival (PFS; P = 0·0398) and overall survival (OS; P = 0·0217) than those who do not. Furthermore, among patients who begin treatment with elevated (≥82·59 ng/ml) sBCMA levels, we assessed the relationship of a decrease in sBCMA to the normal range to OS and found that those who normalize sBCMA demonstrated improved OS (P = 0·0078). Normalizing patients also experienced a markedly improved overall response rate (P < 0·0001). Moreover, all patients who achieved complete remission (CR) showed normalization of sBCMA, and time to normalization (median 0·9 months) was faster than time to CR (5·0 months; P = 0·0036) for these patients. These results suggest that normalization of sBCMA may be an accurate predictor of OS for MM patients during treatment and predict for a higher likelihood of response.

Keywords: multiple myeloma; overall survival; serum B-cell maturation antigen.

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