Rapid and durable complete response in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma treated with carfilzomib, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone

A three-drug treatment for multiple myeloma provided rapid, deep and potentially durable responses, researchers reported on June 4 online in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology, and June 3 at the 2012 Annual Meeting of American Society of Clinical Oncology (Chicago, USA). The researchers, led by Dr Andrzej Jakubowiak, professor of medicine and director of the multiple myeloma program at the University of Chicago Medical Center, found that combining carfilzomib, a next generation proteasome inhibitor, with two standard drugs, lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone, compared favorably to other frontline regimens. The longer patients stayed on the therapy, the better their response. After at least eight 4-week cycles of treatment, 61% of the 36 patients who remained on the therapy had a stringent complete response, defined as no detectable tumor cells or myeloma protein in the blood or bone marrow; 78% had at least a near complete response. More than 90% of patients had no progression of their disease at two years. See the full report here.