Dr. McCarthy,
From the information I have gathered, the latest survival numbers for myeloma show about an 8-10 year overall survival when treated with novel therapy and SCT. For a newly diagnosed patient, should we interpret the data to mean that we have 8-10 years, or should the inherent methodology of retrospective studies give us hope that our survival will exceed these numbers?
Thank you
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Re: Survival numbers
Hi Perseverance,
The latest studies show up to an 8 to 10 year median survival for patients undergoing transplant. There is a Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) paper of which Dr. Barlogie is the first author this year that examined Event Free (EFS) and Overall Survival (OS). He pooled data from USA and French studies and showed that the median OS for some of the newer studies is at 8 years and beyond. Median Survival means that if you look at 100 patients, 50 will die within a certain period of time and 50 will still be alive. Thus, the median survival of 8 to 10 years from initiation of therapy means that half of the group of multiple myeloma patients will be alive at 8 to 10 years. The starting point is usually from the time of initiation of therapy. So, this is a dramatic improvement in the median survival from the initiation of therapy which used to be 3 years back in the 1980s. It obviously needs to get better but better therapies including new drugs such as bortezomib and lenalidomide as well as the more wide-spread use of autologous stem cell transplant and improvements in supportive care have led to an improved OS for multiple myeloma patients.
The latest studies show up to an 8 to 10 year median survival for patients undergoing transplant. There is a Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) paper of which Dr. Barlogie is the first author this year that examined Event Free (EFS) and Overall Survival (OS). He pooled data from USA and French studies and showed that the median OS for some of the newer studies is at 8 years and beyond. Median Survival means that if you look at 100 patients, 50 will die within a certain period of time and 50 will still be alive. Thus, the median survival of 8 to 10 years from initiation of therapy means that half of the group of multiple myeloma patients will be alive at 8 to 10 years. The starting point is usually from the time of initiation of therapy. So, this is a dramatic improvement in the median survival from the initiation of therapy which used to be 3 years back in the 1980s. It obviously needs to get better but better therapies including new drugs such as bortezomib and lenalidomide as well as the more wide-spread use of autologous stem cell transplant and improvements in supportive care have led to an improved OS for multiple myeloma patients.
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Dr. Philip McCarthy - Name: Philip McCarthy Jr., M.D.
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