Whole body-MRI and fluorine 18 fluorodeoxyglucose PET/CT shows promising diagnostic accuracy in multiple myeloma patients

Dr Claudio Cerchione - IRCCS, Meldola, Italy

In IRCCS in Meldola, in the institution where I work, it’s the Istituto Romagnolo per lo Studio dei Tumori "Dino Amadori", we are working on a new profiling, a new generation profiling of our patients, particularly we are improving diagnostic tools. We have shown at ASCO 2024 as an oral communication and also here at EHA 2024 our data with the combination of whole-body MRI, treated as new generation MRI, with at PET/CT that we know is the standard of care. The combination of techniques can change the results of our patients in 26% and, in particular, in this 26% of patients the outcome can be totally changed thanks to the combination that could, in some way, anticipate the start of the treatment in newly diagnosed and smouldering high-risk multiple myeloma or relapsed/refractory switched to another treatment in order to optimise the drugs that we have available.

These data support strongly for the combination of methods as a standard of care because we need really to better characterise multiple myeloma. The next steps in this study is to add the molecular profiling that we are performing with SKY92 in order to detect new biomarkers and in order to complete the profile of our patient, thanks also to metabolic assays and to clinical data that we are going to collect. The real dream, the final endpoint is to create a new prognostic score adding all these results because we want to improve also the diagnostic more than the therapeutic approach to our patients. All these results achieved also diagnostic will help us to optimise all the treatments that are available and this will help us to run in the cure of multiple myeloma which is the best situation that we give to our patients, to their caregivers and to all the myeloma researchers.