Steroid pill prolongs survival in patients with multip...( prolongs remission in patients with mul...),Health

prolongs remission in patients with multiple myeloma, it has not been shown to improve their overall survival. Steroids, however, have been found to inhibit tumor growth in multiple myeloma. Prednisone, for example, is a steroid that can be taken in pill-form and has been combined with up front chemotherapy to help shrink tumors and bring patients into remission. The drug has also been evaluated in combination with interferon as maintenance therapy, with some studies showing that remission was prolonged. But no prior studies to date have examined whether prednisone alone could prolong remission as well as improve overall survival for patients with multiple myeloma.

We wanted to find out whether prednisone alone, a drug that was easy to take and had fewer side effects, was effective as maintenance therapy without the toxicities and costs associated with interferon, said Dr. Berenson.

In the study, the researchers compared patients with multiple myeloma receiving prednisone in pill-form following a response to treatment with one of two chemotherapy combinations: vincristine, doxorubicin and dexamethasone with prednisone or with or without quinine, which has been found to increase the effectiveness of chemotherapy. Treatment with either of the chemotherapy combinations was repeated every 21 days for at least six months, or until patients achieved at least a 25 percent reduction in tumor size. After a 53-month follow-up period, the investigators found that there was no difference in either progression-free or overall survival between the patients receiving chemotherapy with or without quinine.

To determine whether prednisone alone was effective as maintenance therapy, patients who responded to treatment with up-front chemotherapy were randomly selected to receive either 10 (the amount that the body normally makes daily) or 50 mg of prednisone every other day until their disease progressed. From the time that maintenance therapy started,
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Contact: Kelli Stauning
kelli.stauning@cshs.org
310-423-3674
Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
2-May-2002

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