Multiple myeloma clinical trial closes early due to significantly superior results of comparative treatment

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Mayo Clinic Cancer Center announced today that a multiple myeloma clinical trial has shown a significant improvement in survival with lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone therapy compared to lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone.

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. 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 I've 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."

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.