Cardiovascular Complications of Modern Multiple Myeloma Therapy: A Pharmacovigilance Study

Background: Multiple myeloma accounts for over 15% of hematological malignancies. In attempt to tackle this malady, the FDA approved four drugs in 2015 which has propagated further development of new anti-multiple myeloma since. However, the health safety of these new agents is still ill-defined. The aim of this study is to delineate the cardiovascular adverse events of these drugs. Methods: We searched the cardiac adverse events of the newly approved FDA drugs since 2015 using the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Adverse Events Reporting System database (FAERS). We calculated the reporting odds ratio (ROR) with 95% confidence for four drugs that have the highest incidence of cardiovascular adverse events. Results: Among the medications that have approved for MM Between 2015-2020, four novel drugs showed the highest incidence of cardiotoxicity. ROR (95% CI) for atrial fibrillation due to elotuzumab, Ixazomib, daratumumab, and panobinostat compared to other FAERS drugs was 5.8 (4.4-7.7), 1.9 (1.5-2.3), 4.8 (4.2-5.6), and 5.7 (4.1-8.1), respectively. The ROR (95% CI) for cardiac failure was 8.2 (6.4-10.5), 4.7 (4.1-5.4), 5.8 (4.9-6.7), and 5.6 (3.8-8.1) and ROR (95% CI) for coronary disease was 2.7 (1.9-3.9), 2.7 (2.3-3.2), 2.3 (1.9-2.8), and 4.6 (3.2-6.6) due to elotuzumab, Ixazomib, daratumumab, and panobinostat versus all other drugs in FAERS. Conclusions: Our results demonstrated that the newly approved antimyeloma therapy (elotuzumab, Ixazomib, daratumumab, panobinostat) are significantly associated previously unknow cardiotoxicity. These results warrant further studies and highlight the importance of considering the cardiac history of patients with multiple myeloma when utilizing these novel agents.