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Myeloma

Long-term follow-up on overall survival from the MM-009 and MM-010 phase III trials of lenalidomide plus dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma

Leukemia volume 23, pages 2147–2152 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

We present a pooled update of two large, multicenter MM-009 and MM-010 placebo-controlled randomized phase III trials that included 704 patients and assessed lenalidomide plus dexamethasone versus dexamethasone plus placebo in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (MM). Patients in both studies were randomized to receive 25 mg daily oral lenalidomide or identical placebo, plus 40 mg oral dexamethasone. In this pooled analysis, using data up to unblinding (June 2005 for MM-009 and August 2005 for MM-010), treatment with lenalidomide plus dexamethasone significantly improved overall response (60.6 vs 21.9%, P<0.001), complete response rate (15.0 vs 2.0%, P<0.001), time to progression (median of 13.4 vs 4.6 months, P<0.001) and duration of response (median of 15.8 months vs 7 months, P<0.001) compared with dexamethasone-placebo. At a median follow-up of 48 months for surviving patients, using data up to July 2008, a significant benefit in overall survival (median of 38.0 vs 31.6 months, P=0.045) was retained despite 47.6% of patients who were randomized to dexamethasone-placebo receiving lenalidomide-based treatment after disease progression or study unblinding. Low β2-microglobulin and low bone marrow plasmacytosis were associated with longer survival. In conclusion, these data confirm the significant response and survival benefit with lenalidomide and dexamethasone.

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Acknowledgements

We received editorial support in the preparation of this article, funded by Celgene. We, however, were fully responsible for content and editorial decisions for this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Therapeutics, University of Athens School of Medicine, Athens, Greece

    M A Dimopoulos

  2. Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology, Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    C Chen

  3. Department of Clinical Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Australia

    A Spencer

  4. Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    R Niesvizky

  5. Department of Hematology, C.H.U. Purpan, Toulouse, France

    M Attal

  6. Abramson Cancer Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    E A Stadtmauer

  7. Department of Cellular Biotechnologies and Hematology, University ‘Sapienza’, Rome, Italy

    M T Petrucci

  8. Celgene Corporation, Summit, NJ, USA

    Z Yu, M Olesnyckyj, J B Zeldis & R D Knight

  9. Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma, The M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA

    D M Weber

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  1. M A Dimopoulos
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  2. C Chen
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Correspondence to M A Dimopoulos.

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Dimopoulos, M., Chen, C., Spencer, A. et al. Long-term follow-up on overall survival from the MM-009 and MM-010 phase III trials of lenalidomide plus dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. Leukemia 23, 2147–2152 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2009.147

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Keywords

  • multiple myeloma
  • lenalidomide
  • dexamethasone
  • myelosuppression

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