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For people suffering from a relapse of multiple myeloma, researchers have found out the safety, efficacy and permissible dosage of pomalidomide and compared it to other drugs such as bortezomib and lenalidomide.

This research was done in partnership between Moffitt, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Hackensack University Medical Center, Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium and Celgene Corporation. The results of the study appeared in the journal of the American Society of Hematology called Blood.

Multiple myeloma, also known as Kahler's disease after Otto Kahler, is the cancer of the plasma cell, which is a type of white blood cell. The symptoms are pain in the bones like spine and ribs, frequent infection, renal failure, anemia, etc.

For the phase I of the clinical trial, the scientists enlisted 38 patients and observed that administration of pomalidomide yielded positive results for 42 percent of the patients, for 21 patients the response was partial, and 3 percent of the patients responded completely to the treatment.

"This open-label, phase I, dose-escalation study was primarily conducted to evaluate the maximum tolerated dose of pomalidomide. The secondary objective was to assess safety of pomalidomide when given with or without dexamethasone," Daniel Sullivan, M.D., associate center director for clinical investigations at Moffitt and the study co-author was quoted as saying in Medicalxpress.

It was observed that the survival and the relapse time lessened for patients who were treated with bortezomib, lenalidomide or thalidomide. However, it was observed that when the dosage of pomalidomide was increased at the rate of two to five mg per day for 21 to 28 days and when low doses of dexamethasone was added, it exhibited "encouraging activity with manageable toxicity."

The phase II experimentation of the studies was able to reconfirm the safety and efficacy of pomalidomide on patients suffering from a relapse of this type of cancer. The approval of this drug for patients is currently under the consideration of the Food and Drug Administration.