In a clinical trial that was conducted by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and part of the National Institutes of Health, it was revealed that a low dosage regimen of steroids can prove to be an excellent option for treating bone marrow cancer patients rather than persisting for the standard dose of dexamethasone.

The trial revealed that low doses of dexamethasone, a steroid, with lenalidomide can work wonders on patients who are fighting against newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. It was also revealed that the combination of dexamethasone and lenalidomide brought fewer side-effects.

From Bio-Medicine.Org:

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells that are found in blood and bone marrow.

Survival chances improved considerably when a low dose of the steroid dexamethasone combined with lenalidomide was tried on patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

The clinical trial was sponsored by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted by a network of researchers led by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG).

The significance of the results lies in that a low dose regimen has been found to be more effective than the standard dose of dexamethasone.

Researchers found that patients in the study who received a lower dose regimen had a one-year survival of 96 percent compared to 86 per cent for patients treated in the case of those with the standard-dose of dexamethasone and lenalidomide.

In addition, there were fewer side effects associated with the low-dose dexamethasone and lenalidomide.

As per noted study chair Vincent Rajkumar, the combination of lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone is extremely positive and truly represents a potential step ahead for treating multiple myeloma.

Tags: bone marrow cancer, dexamethasone, lenalidomide, multiple myeloma, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma

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