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Senior Citizen Health & Medicine
Multiple Myeloma Clinical Trial Stops Due to
Tremendous Success
High survival rates found for this cancer that primarily
hits senior citizens
April 5, 2007 - A Mayo Clinic Cancer Center researcher says a
recent clinical trial comparing therapies for multiple myeloma a
cancer of the plasma cell that primarily strikes older people has
shown a dramatic improvement in survival with lenalidomide plus low-dose
dexamethasone. He says this is a major advance in treating the cancer.
The trial compared lenalidomide plus low-dose
dexamethasone with the results from lenalidomide plus high-dose
dexamethasone.
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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.
Although 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 Ive 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.
About Multiple Myeloma
Age is the most significant risk factor for
multiple myeloma, as 99% of cases are diagnosed in people over the age
of 40, and more than 50% occur in people over the age of 71, according
to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.
"Multiple myeloma is an incurable but treatable
disease," MMRF states on its Webiste.
While a myeloma diagnosis can be overwhelming, it
is important to remember that there are several promising new therapies
that are helping patients live longer, healthier lives. The estimated
frequency of multiple myeloma is 5-6 new cases per 100,000 persons per
year.
Accordingly, in the USA 15,980 new cases are
expected to be diagnosed in 2005. At present there are more than 50,000
people in the United States living with multiple myeloma.
Because the peak age for multiple myeloma is
among the elderly it is thought that susceptibility may increase with
the aging process and the consequent reduction in immune surveillance of
evolving cancer, or that myeloma may result from a lifelong accumulation
of toxic insults or antigenic challenges.
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.
>>
Treatment of Multiple Myeloma at Mayo Clinic
>>
Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
>>
www.cancer.gov
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