Lenalidomide-dexamethasone combination found effective to treat multiple myeloma
According to a recently concluded comprehensive study involving 353 patients with myeloma and conducted at 44 centers in the United States and Canada, a combination of Lenalidomide and dexamethasone is effective against multiple myeloma.
It was also found out during the study that pairing a new derivative of thalidomide with a steroid tends to slowdown the progressive nature of multiple myeloma that is an incurable form of bone marrow cancer. It was also remarked that this combination can also prove to be effective for prolonging the lives of patients who have relapsed from earlier treatments.
From News-Medical.Net:
“These trials highlight how large-scale cooperation in a team effort by myeloma investigators can quickly confirm benefits and introduce new active agents for patients with this disease,” Weber says. “We also owe a debt to the willing patients who participated in this study.”
Multiple myeloma is caused by formation of abnormal plasma cells, a type of white blood cell, in the bone marrow. These cells multiply rapidly, crowding out normal red and white blood cells and platelets. Tumors starting in the bone marrow may cause pain, and weaken bones predisposing them to fracture. In the United States about 20,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma annually, and about 11,000 succumb to the disease each year.
Thalidomide, a breakthrough drug for multiple myeloma, is produced and marketed by Celgene Corporation as Thalomid(r). The company chemically altered thalidomide to make lenalidomide, known commercially as Revlimid(r), in hopes of reducing side effects and improving efficacy against the disease. The drugs attack both the malignant cells and the cellular environment that nurtures them.
A combination of drugs can prove to be highly beneficial as there may be a possibility that the disease can become resistant to one therapy, according to lead author Donna Weber, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.
