Jamie Koprivnikar, MD, Talks COMMANDS Trial, Luspatercept Dosing

Dr. Koprivnikar, of Hackensack University Medical Center, discusses her thoughts on the COMMANDS trial of luspatercept versus epoetin alfa in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) presented at the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2024 Hybrid Congress.

“Numerically, more patients treated with luspatercept had improvement or resolution of neutropenia and thrombocytopenia as compared [with] patients treated with epoetin alfa,” Dr. Koprivnikar explained.

In terms of response times, patients treated with luspatercept in COMMANDS also achieved erythroid lineage improvement sooner than patients treated with epoetin alfa.

“I don’t consider the response, which was less than a seven-day difference, to be overwhelmingly significant,” she continued. “However, when we think about the fact that luspatercept is dosed every three weeks, we may be biased in thinking that patients are going to take longer to respond.”

Dr. Koprivnikar further discussed dosing considerations for luspatercept.

“One of the most common mistakes I see in terms of luspatercept administration is failing to increase the dose appropriately,” she explained. “Based on data from the COMMANDS study, the majority of patients will require at least one dose increase.”