Daratumumab raises early infection risks in patients treated with multiple myeloma, according to an oral abstract presented on September 17, 2025, at the International Myeloma Society Annual Meeting in Toronto.
The study, which was reported as the first and largest meta-analysis to characterize the risk of infection over time in patients with myeloma receiving novel therapies, was led and presented by Alissa Visram, MD, an assistant professor at the Juravinski Cancer Center in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
In an individual patient-level meta-analysis of six randomized trials with roughly 3,000 participants (1,500 daratumumab patients; 1,489 non-daratumumab patients) 79% of daratumumab-treated patients developed an infection within two years (vs 61% without daratumumab), and nearly 30% experienced a serious grade ≥3 infection. Rates plateaued after six months but remained higher with daratumumab, she reported.
“Irrespective of treatment, the infection risk is highest within the first three months of therapy,” she said. “However, the rates of overall and serious infections were statistically higher in daratumumab-treated patients.”
After approximately six months the risk plateaued in both groups of patients, she explained, yet “daratumumab patients continued to have a higher long-term infection risk,” adding that these later infections were grade 1 or 2.
“These findings provide a basis upon which to design infection mitigation strategies compatible with modern treatment regimens,” she concluded during the presentation.
Reference
Visram, A. Temporal trends in infectious risk among multiple myeloma patients treated with daratumumab: a meta-analysis. Abstract AO-20. Presented at the 2025 International Myeloma Society Annual Meeting; September 17-20; Toronto, Canada.
