London, December 16 (IANS) A therapeutic drug has been foundto improve outcomes and survival rates for patients with a serious type of bonemarrow cancer.
In a clinical trial by researchers at Newcastle Universityin Britain, patients with newly diagnosed myeloma were treated with a drugcalled lenalidomide.
The results, published in the journal The Lancet Oncology, showed an improvement for those who received lenalidomide drug, compared to those not receiving it.
"This is a major breakthrough as it shows that thelong-term use of lenalidomide significantly improves the time myeloma patientsstay in remission after initial therapy," said Professor Graham Jacksonfrom the Northern Institute for Cancer Research at Newcastle.
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 thatfor younger patients lenalidomide improves their overall survival for thisdifficult-to-treat bone marrow cancer," Jackson said.
"Our research highlights that lenalidomide should beconsidered for newly diagnosed patients following stem-celltransplantation," he added.
As part of the study, a total of 1,137 newly diagnosedpatients were randomly assigned to lenalidomide maintenance therapy and 834patients to observation - this was after they completed their initialtreatment.
The results show that lenalidomide can prolong the averageremission time by more than two years in younger patients and by well over ayear in older, less fit patients.
It reduced the risk of progression or death by more than 50 per cent in both groups.
