Novel prognostic factors and disease monitoring tools in the immunotherapy era of multiple myeloma

The availability of new drugs and combinations in multiple myeloma have led to unprecedented improvements in patients’ outcomes; hence, functional cure starts to be an achievable treatment aim. However, MM is still heterogeneous with a proportion of patients showing dismal outcomes. Taking into account the various therapeutic options in clinicians’ arsenal, the emergence of novel biomarkers is a key aspect to improve risk stratification and define the optimal therapeutic scheme. Immunotherapy-based combinations (e.g. monoclonal antibodies, antibody drug conjugates, bispecific antibodies and chimeric antigen receptor-T cells) are continuing to improve the myeloma treatment landscape, while the response deepness achieved by these modern treatments require very sensitive methodological tools to detect and monitor residual disease.

In this Research Topic we would like to welcome data investigating novel predictive and prognostic factors in patients treated with immunotherapy-based combinations. Disease-related, microenvironment-related, immune-related and patient-related prognostic factors will be a key aspect to refine risk stratification of MM patients treated with immunotherapies and maximize their benefit.

Moreover, disease monitoring tools exploring minimal residual disease in different compartments and sites, as well as at different sensitivity levels will further inform us on the dynamic risk of our patients.

Collecting data on these issues will guide future personalized treatment approaches of MM in patients.

We invite original research articles, reviews, mini-reviews, and case reports in the following areas:

- Emergence of novel prognostic factors in the immunotherapeutic era of multiple myeloma

- Validation and subgroup analyses of established prognostic factors in patients treated with immunotherapeutic agents

- Characterization of bone marrow microenvironmental and immune signatures that correlate with treatment efficacy

- Development and validation of disease monitoring tools for measurable residual disease detection in the bone marrow after treatment

- Exploration of monitoring tools for residual disease detection outside the bone marrow

Topic Editor Dr. Mattia d'Agostino has received honoraria from Sanofi, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Janssen. He is or has been part of the following advisory boards: Sanofi, Glaxo-Smith-Kline, Bristol-Myers-Squibb, Janssen, Adaptive biotechnologies.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Prognostic Factors, Disease Monitoring, Multiple Myeloma, Myeloma

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.