ASH 2013 - Skip the Transplant

ASH is the American Society of Hematology, which has its annual meeting in early December each year, called the ASH Conference, or just ASH.  I will be blogging on several topics, but this one, though it is "just" a poster talk and not an oral presentation, seems extremely important because it suggests a change in the standard of care for newly-diagnosed patients. Paper 3180: Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone Alone Is Equivalent To Lenalidomide and Dexamethasone With Autologous Stem Cell Transplant In Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma: Interim Study Results Of a Randomized Trial. The authors are from Columbia University and two other major universities.  Their small study has two arms: (1) Revlimid/dexamethasone (Rev/Dex), followed by autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT), then followed by Revlimid maintenance; and (2) The same Rev/Dex treatment and Rev maintenance, but without the transplant.  Here are some of the results: More patients on the ASCT arm responded to treatment, 96% versus 77%.  No surprise.  Those who did not respond went off study and are not included in the statistics reported below. Patients on the ASCT arm had a median progression-free survival of 17.0 months, versus 25.2 months for the Rev/Dex-only arm.  That's right - I don't have it backward. Similarly, patients in the ASCT arm have a median overall survival (OS) of 57.6 months, while the OS for the other arm has not been calculated yet because more than half are still aliv...
Source: Myeloma Hope - Category: Cancer Source Type: blogs