Conditions: Multiple Myeloma
Keywords: multiple myeloma frontline treatment first-line treatment
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 8
Healthy volunteers: no

Brief summary:
This study is to determine whether addition of Revlimid to standard therapy will increase overall and complete response rates compared to historical standard frontline therapy and whether this combination treatment has fewer side effects than similar combination induction treatment.

Detailed description:
Current multiple myeloma therapies, typically an induction regimen followed by consolidation therapy with high dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell rescue (autologous transplantation), can induce remission but relapse and death are inevitable. A growing body of literature suggests that consolidation therapy with autologous transplantation does not confer additional survival benefit and may have increased procedure-related morbidity and mortality in patients over 65 years old. Autologous transplantation is no longer recommended as standard care for this population. In addition, certain patients may not be eligible for autologous transplantation due to co-morbid medical conditions or may elect not to undergo the procedure for personal reasons.

The historic standard of care for multiple myeloma patients who were not eligible for autologous transplantation for consolidation was induction therapy with melphalan/ prednisone (MP), often followed by some form of maintenance therapy after achievement of complete or partial remission. A recent phase 3 study showed that the addition of thalidomide to MP (MPT) demonstrated higher overall and complete response rates. For patients who are eligible for autologous transplantation, thalidomide/ dexamethasone (Thal Dex) induction therapy is considered the standard of care, but a phase 2 study of lenalidomide (Revlimid)/ dexamethasone (Rev Dex) induction therapy demonstrated higher overall and complete response rates compared to Thal Dex. In addition, lenalidomide has a favorable side effect profile compared to thalidomide. Based on these data, we hypothesize that the combination of Revlimid/ melphalan/ dexamethasone (ReMeDex) induction therapy for myeloma patients who are not planned for autologous transplantation due to age restriction or other factors may demonstrate higher overall and/ or complete response rates with fewer side effects.

Arms:
arm 1: Treatment phase (28 days/cycle x 6 cycles):

Lenalidomide: 10 mg/day orally on days 1-21, followed by 7 days of rest. Melphalan: 4 mg/m2 daily on days 1-4. Dexamethasone: 40 mg daily on days 1, 8, 15 and 22.

Maintenance Phase (for subjects who achieve partial response or better at the end of the treatment phase):

lenalidomide: 10 mg/day orally on days 1-21 followed by 7 days of rest (28 days/cycle) for a maximum of 24 cycles.

Interventions: intervention 1: Lenalidomide (Revlimid) intervention 2: Melphalan intervention 3: Dexamethasone
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: None intervention 2: None intervention 3: None

Protocol document: