Major Advance In Treatment Of Multiple Myeloma

The study led by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and supported by the National Cancer Institute compared combination treatment of oral medications lenalidomide and either high- or low-dose dexamethasone in 445 patients with newly-diagnosed myeloma. Lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone had a one-year survival rate of 86 percent. The comparative therapy using low-dose dexamethasone showed a significantly higher 96.5 percent overall survival rate at one year, with much less toxicity.

"In my opinion, this is the best one-year survival data that I've seen in a large phase 3 study in myeloma," says Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., Mayo Clinic hematologist and primary investigator of the ECOG study. "This is a major advance in the treatment of this cancer."

All patients on the high-dose dexamethasone arm of the clinical trial will be moved to the low-dose arm. A successor study using lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone was closed early as a result of these findings.