For patients with standard-risk, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, a phase III trial showed that maintenance therapy with continuous lenalidomide did not significantly improve overall survival versus fixed-duration lenalidomide.These patients did not undergo upfront autologous stem cell transplantation and received induction treatment with a proteasome inhibitor and lenalidomide.These results show the value of conducting prospective trials to assess appropriate treatment durations, researchers said.
Maintenance therapy with continuous lenalidomide (Revlimid) did not significantly improve overall survival (OS) in patients with standard-risk, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma, the phase III ENDURANCE trial showed.
Among patients who received induction treatment with a proteasome inhibitor and lenalidomide, the OS rate at 7 years was 68.6% in the continuous maintenance group versus 69% in those who received fixed-duration lenalidomide for 2 years (P=0.93), reported Shaji Kumar, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues.
Median progression-free survival (PFS) was also similar -- 42.5 months in the continuous group versus 38.9 months in the fixed-duration group, with PFS rates at 7 years of 36.1% and 29.7%, respectively, they wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.
