The use of midostaurin therapy resulted in clinical improvement in four patients with aggressive systemic mastocytosis (SM), according to a case series recently published in BioMedicines.
The team of researchers sought to better understand how patients with aggressive SM fared with midostaurin, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor. Aggressive SM is an advanced subtype of SM, and typically carries a poor prognosis; it accounts for less than 10% of SM cases.
The researchers presented the cases of four Romanian patients with clinically confirmed aggressive SM who all received midostaurin therapy after it was deemed to be likely beneficial. The cases included three female patients (44, 53 and 57 years of age) and a 75-year-old male patient.
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In the case of the 44-year-old woman, after being diagnosed with aggressive SM, she was started on midostaurin alongside bisphosphonates and anti-RANKL therapy. This resulted in a decrease in her tryptase levels, resolution of her bone pain, and a reduction in her osteolytic lesions (i.e., the destruction of bone tissue).
The 53-year-old woman was initially diagnosed with smoldering SM (a non-advanced subtype), which progressed to the aggressive form of the disease. She was then started on midostaurin, which resulted in significant clinical improvements after just six months of therapy.
In the case of the 57-year-old female patient, midostaurin resulted in a “rapid clinical and biological response,” resulting in tangible improvements in her quality of life. Meanwhile, the 75-year-old patient experienced a reduction in the size of his enlarged spleen and the resolution of lymphadenopathy (disease of the lymph nodes) after midostaurin initiation.
“Our case series illustrates that KIT inhibitors can offer meaningful clinical benefit in ASM, reinforcing their position as an emerging cornerstone option in ASM management,” the study’s authors noted. However, the authors also noted that midostaurin rarely leads to complete remission of SM in patients, and “the majority experience only temporary disease control, with eventual progression observed over time.”
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