A Phase 1 study found the four-drug combination of Revlimid-Velcade-dexamethasone-cyclophosphamide (RVCD) to be safe and effective in newly diagnosed, previously untreated multiple myeloma patients.

These results suggest that adding cyclophosphamide as the fourth drug in the treatment therapy may be just as or more effective than traditional two- and three-drug combinations. The study also determined that 500 mg/m² cyclophosphamide, the highest dose tested, could safely be used in the RVCD drug combination.

Previous studies have shown that three-drug combinations can be very effective, including the Revlimid (lenalidomide)-Velcade (bortezomib)-dexamethasone …

Treatment of newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients with a combination of cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), Velcade (bortezomib), and dexamethasone (Decadron) (abbreviated CyBorD) appears to be effective and safe. The findings were presented June 5 in a poster session at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting.

The study compared CyBorD with Revlimid (lenalidomide)-dexamethasone treatment (abbreviated RD) and cyclophosphamide-Revlimid-dexamethasone treatment (abbreviated CRD). The results of the Phase 2 trials indicate that RD and CyBorD treatment were similar in efficacy and safety. CRD, however, was not as effective and had …

Yesterday -- Saturday, June 5 -- was the sec­ond day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2010 annual meeting in Chicago.  It was a busy day in terms of re­search posters and pre­sen­ta­tions re­lated to mul­ti­ple myeloma.  As a re­­sult, there is a lot of ground to cover in this up­date.

Almost 40 myeloma-related posters were up for meeting attendees to view during the daytime poster session on "lymphoma and plasma cell disorders."  Among those 40-or-so posters, six con­cerned re­search done by the myeloma team at the Uni­ver­sity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), …

In a study recently published in the journal Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia, researchers determined that continuous treatment with cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan) and prednisone at low doses is effective and manageable in multiple myeloma patients who cannot tolerate conventional chemotherapy.

When myeloma patients are unresponsive to treatment or experience relapse, doctors implement their plan B, known generally as salvage therapy. Most salvage therapies consist of the same treatment drugs at an increased dosage or a combination treatment of the same and new drugs. However, in patients who have health complications or …

The combination therapy of cyclophosphamide, thalidomide (Thalomid) and dexamethasone (Decadron), commonly referred to as CTD, is effective and well tolerated in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients, according to a new study published in the journal Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma & Leukemia. Patients who underwent autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) after CTD therapy had higher success rates and longer survival.

Currently, thalidomide plus dexamethasone is one of the standard treatments for newly diagnosed myeloma patients. However, this treatment is associated with a high rate of blood clotting in the deep veins …

A new study published in the British Journal of Haematology suggests that the drug combination regimen of Revlimid (lenalidomide), cyclophosphamide, and prednisone (RCP) is highly effective in multiple myeloma patients who are refractory (not responsive) to Revlimid-dexamethasone (Decadron) treatment.

The researchers of the study had previously shown that continuous low-dose oral cyclophosphamide in combination with prednisone was effective in relapsed multiple myeloma. To further improve the efficacy of the oral regimen, they added Revlimid to the drug combination.

The clinical trial enrolled 14 multiple myeloma patients who …

The results of a recent Phase 3 clinical trial indicate that treatment with high-dose melphalan (Alkeran) prior to a stem cell transplant results in a longer period of remission for myeloma patients than treatment with reduced-intensity melphalan. The differences in remission duration were larger for patients younger than 60 years old.

Based on the significant difference in progression-free survival between the two treatment groups, the researchers concluded that high-dose (200 mg/m²) melphalan is more effective in preparing younger, medically fit multiple myeloma patients for stem cell transplants. However, reduced-intensity (100 mg/m²) …