Current Development of Novel Agents for Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable plasma cell malignancy. Despite the introduction of novel agents, including immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs) and proteasome inhibitors (PIs), which have substantially prolonged the prognosis, it will inevitably relapse and become refractory. The high risk, relapsed and refractory MM (RRMM) remains to be the clinical challenge. In the past decade, novel agents have been drastically developed, including the second generation PI (e.g. carfilzomib) and the third generation IMiD (e.g.pomalidomide). Especially, immunotherapy is the promising direction for MM with monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibody (BsAb), antibody conjugated drug (ACD) and chimeric antigen receptor T-cell immunotherapy (CAR-T) having achieved remarkable efficacy. In addition, with the development of basic research on MM, drugs with new targets, such as Bcl-2 inhibitors, exportin 1 (XPO1) inhibitors, etc., have entered clinical trials or clinical application. This review summarizes the latest treatment progress of novel agents for multiple myeloma.