LILLE, France, Oct. 5 -- Older treatment-naïve stages II or III multiple myeloma patients have a survival advantage when thalidomide (Thalomid) is added to standard therapy, researchers found in a randomized trial.
Overall survival at 51.5 months with the combination of thalidomide, melphalan (Alkeran), and prednisone was 41% (18.4 months) longer than with melphalan and prednisone alone--and 31% (13.3 months) longer than with melphalan-based stem cell infusion therapy.
These findings provided a third large randomized trial to the published evidence for a survival benefit from adding thalidomide to the therapy mix, reported Thierry Facon, M.D., of Hôpital Claude Huriez at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire here, and colleagues, in the Oct. 6 issue of The Lancet.
A thalidomide-based combination should be the new standard of care for multiple myeloma in older treatment-naïve patients, the researchers said.
