Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable blood cancer characterized by clonal bone marrow plasmacytosis, hypercalcemia, renal failure, anemia, and osteolytic bone disease. Approximately 20% of NDMM patients, not predicted to have high-risk disease at diagnosis, progress early, despite optimal induction +/- ASCT and lenalidomide maintenance, and are subsequently categorized as functional high-risk (FHR) disease. Standardized risk-stratification models incorporate biomarkers of tumor burden, existence of high-risk cytogenetics, with the presence/absence of plasma cell leukemia/extramedullary disease to attribute high-risk at diagnosis; however, depth/duration of response to novel agent-based induction (NA-IND) as dynamic markers of disease risk have not been defined. However, irrespective of diagnostic risk-stratification, response to NA-IND may be the single most effective method of identifying patients whose FHR biology portends an unacceptably short overall survival (OS). In this EMN consensus statement, we define FHR-MM as disease progression within 18 months of commencement of first-line therapy in the absence of high-risk cytogenetics, discuss the underlying disease biology, and strategies to improve outcomes for these patients.
Keywords: European myeloma network; consensus statement; early progression; functional high‐risk disease; multiple myeloma.
© 2025 Wiley Periodicals LLC.