Strategies for Diagnosing and Treating Patients With Amyloidosis

At the 2023 Great Debates & Updates in Hematologic Malignancies Meeting in New York, New York, Michael Rosenzweig, MD, City of Hope Duarte, California, shared his insights into strategies for diagnosing and treating patients with various subtypes of amyloidosis. 

Transcript:

Hi, my name is Dr. Michael Rosenzweig. I'm an associate professor of hematology at City of Hope and part of the myeloma disease team, and I'm the Director of the Amyloidosis Program at City of Hope. 

Today, at the Great Debates [& Updates] New York, I have the pleasure of talking about how I treat amyloidosis. I think the most important parts of my presentation is for physicians to be very much aware of amyloidosis—to be able to make the diagnosis in terms of having a high suspicion. 

It's important: if we don't think of the diagnosis, we won't be able to confirm it in patients. It's critically important, as we know amyloidosis patients have a hard time tolerating traditional anti-myeloma therapies. Also, it’s critically important, once the diagnosis of amyloidosis is made, to really define the disease and define the subtype, because the subtype matters. Because now the treatments for the 2 major types of amyloidosis, light chain (AL) [amyloidosis] and [transthyretin] TTR amyloidosis are distinct. So, doing that subtype analysis is very important.

Also exciting is the ANDROMEDA Study, which showed a clear benefit of adding daratumumab to our traditional CyBorD [cyclophosphamide, bortezomib and dexamethasone] backbone, and has really established a new standard of care for AL amyloidosis in the frontline setting. 

The role of transplant is still being defined. Transplant is still a critical part of treatment for amyloidosis, but its role in the setting of the ANDROMEDA data that shows excellent results for both hematologic and organ responses is really changing the landscape.

With that, thank you very much for hearing my talk. Look forward to seeing everyone at the next Great Debates.

Source:

Rosenzweig M. How Do I Diagnose and Treat AL Amyloidosis? Presented at the Great Debates & Updates in Hematologic Malignancies Meeting; April 13-15, 2023; New York, NY.