Palonosetron, a second-generation 5-HT3-receptor antagonist, is at least as effective as Kytril (granisetron), a first-generation 5-HT3-receptor antagonist, in preventing nausea and vomiting due to chemotherapy up to one day after treatment.  One to five days after treatment, palonosetron remains effective in a significantly larger percentage of patients than does Kytril.

Many chemotherapy patients are subject to vomit-inducing anticancer treatment, which typically contains the drugs cisplatin or anthracycline/cyclophosphamide.  The standard preventative treatment, Kytril, works in just over 50% of patients when administered with dexamethasone prior to chemotherapy.  However, the…

Steroids such as dexamethasone and prednisone are frequently used to treat myeloma patients. They reduce swelling and inflammation and have been shown to kill myeloma cells. However, steroids can also cause many serious side effects.

Both dexamethasone and prednisone can be prescribed alone or in combination with novel anti-myeloma drugs, which include thalidomide (Thalomid), Revlimid (lenalidomide), and Velcade (bortezomib). Prednisone is also used to enhance the response rate of melphalan therapy in myeloma patients.

Side effects caused by these steroids include, but are not…

Two Phase 2 studies presented at this year’s ASH conference show that a new treatment regimen achieves 86 percent to 98 percent responsiveness in relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.

Known as Rev/Vel/Dex, the treatment is a cocktail of three commonly prescribed multiple myeloma drugs — Revlimid (lenalidomide), Velcade (bortezomib), and dexamethasone. Both studies started patients on the same maximum dosage of 25 mg Revlimid, 1.3 mg/m² Velcade, 20 mg dexamethasone, and dosages were adjusted according to individual responses.

Both relapsed/refractory and newly diagnosed patients responded…

In young patients under age 65, stem cell transplants have greatly reduced remission rates when coupled with novel therapeutic agents (thalidomide, Velcade, and Revlimid).

Unlike elderly patients, younger individuals are usually healthy enough to withstand an intensive course of high-dose chemotherapy. The chemotherapy, while a potent killer of cancerous cells, also destroys bone marrow, therefore necessitating a transplant after treatment. In conjunction with high-dose therapy and transplant, the introduction of novel agents has further improved complete remission (CR), very good partial remission (VGPR), and progression-free survival…

A recent paper compared the old and new therapies of multiple myeloma in elderly patients. Until 2007, chemotherapy with melphalan and prednisone (MP) was considered the standard treatment. However, new treatments are needed since the median survival rate with the MP regimen is only three years.

One method considered for the elderly is melphalan therapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT). An Italian multiple myeloma study group showed that a 100-milligram dose of melphalan followed by ASCT given twice worked better than MP in terms of response rate, event-free…