The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has released abstracts for some of the research that will be presented at its 2024 meeting. Among them, Darzalex (daratumumab), an anti-CD38 antibody developed by Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.US), met the primary endpoint in the phase 3 Aquila trial, significantly delaying disease progression in high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) patients.The abstract states that Darzalex monotherapy was well tolerated and showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful benefits in preventing or delaying progression to active multiple myeloma (MM) compared to active monitoring in high-risk SMM patients.Public information shows that SMM is the pre-symptomatic stage of MM, which may develop into active MM, and currently there is no approved treatment. However, recent studies have shown that patients with high risk of progressing to MM may benefit from early treatment. Darzalex is a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD38, which has been approved for the treatment of relapsed/refractory MM and is used in combination with standard therapy for the first-line treatment of newly diagnosed MM. The Aquila study aims to determine whether Darzalex is more effective than active monitoring in delaying the progression of MM.