Lenalidomide Desensitization in Systemic Light-Chain Amyloidosis With Multi-Organ Involvement

Limited therapeutic options are available to amyloid patients treated with many lines of therapy. Although combination therapy using lenalidomide and dexamethasone is an effective sequential regimen for systemic amyloidosis (AL), dexamethasone is often poorly tolerated in patients with cardiac involvement. Lenalidomide as single agent has modest activity, but when used in combination with dexamethasone, careful titration is needed. Dermatological adverse reactions can be problematic to patients on lenalidomide-based therapy. Lowering lenalidomide doses have not been able to consistently prevent recurrent skin toxicity. We report a patient who was neither eligible for stem cell transplant nor able to tolerate previous lines of therapy. Therapeutic dilemma arose from lenalidomide-related moderately severe skin toxicity. We enrolled the patient in the lenalidomide rapid desensitization program (RDP) with success in the presence of poor cardiac reserve and renal impairment. No recurrence of skin rash was observed during the course of therapy. To the best of our knowledge, this was the first AL patients who received and tolerated RDP well, despite multi-organ impairments. The target dose may be achieved based on individual patient's ability to tolerate RDP. Incremental dose increase can be applied in future dates without risk of rash recurrence.