New Drug Offers Hope for Bone Marrow Cancer Patients

A therapeutic drug has been found to improve outcomes and survival rates for patients with a serious type of bone marrow cancer.

In a clinical trial by researchers, patients with newly diagnosed myeloma were treated with a drug called lenalidomide.

The results showed an improvement for those who received lenalidomide drug, compared to those not receiving it.

This is a major breakthrough as it shows that the long-term use of lenalidomide significantly improves the time myeloma patients stay in remission after initial therapy. 

Myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells and it can affect several areas of the body, such as the spine, skull, pelvis and ribs. Current treatment usually involves chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant.

It is a huge step and, importantly, identifies that for younger patients lenalidomide improves their overall survival for this difficult-to-treat bone marrow cancer. Our research highlights that lenalidomide should be considered for newly diagnosed patients following stem-cell transplantation. 

As part of the study, a total of 1,137 newly diagnosed patients were randomly assigned to lenalidomide maintenance therapy and 834 patients to observation - this was after they completed their initial treatment.

The results show that lenalidomide can prolong the average remission time by more than two years in younger patients and by well over a year in older, less fit patients.

It reduced the risk of progression or death by more than 50 per cent in both groups.

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Cancer drug ups heart failure, hypertension risk in multiple myeloma patients

A study has recently found that taking a higher dose of Carfilzomib, which is used for treating cancer, can increase the risk of hypertension, heart failure, and heart attacks in multiple myeloma patients.

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a bone marrow cancer that affects plasma cells.

The proteasome inhibitor carfilzomib has taken on an increasing role in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

According to the researchers, higher doses of Carfilzomib are associated with higher rates of cardiovascular adverse events (CVAE).

The results showed that 18 per cent of multiple myeloma patients receiving Carfilzomib experienced cardiovascular adverse events (CVAE) such as hypertension, heart failure, heart attacks, or arrhythmia.

Lead author said that like any cancer therapy, the concern with this approach was that it might have an effect on an otherwise healthy part of the body - in this case, the heart.

The team gathered data from 24 studies reported from 2007 through 2017, which included information on 2,594 MM patients.

They found 18.1 per cent of patients who took Carfilzomib experienced CVAE, with 8.2 per cent of those cases being grade three or higher, meaning they are categorised as severe.

The most common CVAEs were hypertension (12.2 per cent) and heart failure (4.1 per cent). Arrhythmias (2.4 per cent) and ischemic events (1.8 per cent) - in which there isn't enough blood flow to the heart leading to the death of heart muscle.

"Taken together, these findings argue that carfilzomib is responsible for an elevated risk, and anyone who is treating patients with this drug needs to be aware that this is a common event,"the author stated.

The researchers noted that these findings were particularly important since there were already overlapping risk factors for both MM and cardiovascular disease, such as older age and obesity.

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