MEETING NEWS
IMWG Revises International Staging System
for Multiple Myeloma
At this year’s International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG)
Summit, this large team of myeloma experts released a
revised International Staging System (R-ISS) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM) patients. To better risk-stratify patients with MM, the new system adds genetic information to the standard prognostic tests for MM prognosis.
“The R-ISS staging system is a new risk-stratification algorithm
with an improved prognostic power compared with the individual
ISS, chromosomal abnormalities, and serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) parameters,” Antonio Palumbo, MD, chief of the
Myeloma Unit in the Department of Oncology at the University
of Torino, Italy, and colleagues wrote in the Journal of Clinical
Oncology. “It includes simple, reliable, and widely used prognostic
markers, and it allows the identification of three different multiple
myeloma entities with clearly different outcomes.”
To establish these entities, Dr. Palumbo and a panel of 31
international myeloma experts developed an algorithm that adjusted for ISS stage, chromosomal abnormalities, and serum LDH
parameters, then validated the algorithm in 3,060 patients from 11
international trials. The distinct MM groups are:
• R-ISS I: No high-risk chromosomal abnormalities (del17p
and/or t[4;14] and/or t[14;16]), normal LDH level (less than
the upper limit of normal range); serum β2-microglobulin
level <3.5 mg/L and serum albumin level of 3.5 g/dL or
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