Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • From the Analyst's Couch
  • Published:

Multiple myeloma therapies

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 6, pages 181–182 (2007)Cite this article

Current drugs

In 2003, bortezomib (Velcade; Millenium) became the first drug approved by the US FDA for use in patients with relapsed or refractory MM. Bortezomib, given intravenously, inhibits the 26S proteasome, and this activity has been shown to prevent the degradation of key anticancer proteins. The results of the Phase III APEX study, which compared the use of bortezomib with dexamethasone in patients with relapsed or refractory MM, revealed that addition of bortezomib resulted in a median time to disease progression of 6.2 months, a 78% increase over the control arm2. Bortezomib was recently evaluated as a treatment for patients newly diagnosed with MM in combination with melphalan (Alkeran; Celgene) and prednisone. This combination, also known as VMP, produced a complete response rate of 16% and an overall response rate of 89%3.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Prevalence of multiple myeloma and impact of new therapies.
Figure 2: Market for multiple myeloma therapies.

References

  1. Richardson, P. New treatments for myeloma. Oncology 14, 1781–1992 (2005).

    Google Scholar 

  2. Richardson, P. G. et al. Bortezomib or high-dose dexamethasone for relapsed multiple myeloma. N. Engl. J. Med. 352, 2487–2498 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Mateos, M. V. et al. Bortezomib plus melphalan and prednisone in elderly untreated patients with multiple myeloma: results of a multicenter phase 1/2 study. Blood 108, 2165–2172 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Rajkumar, S. V. et al. Phase III clinical trial of thalidomide plus dexamethasone compared with dexamethasone alone in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: a clinical trial coordinated by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group. J. Clin. Oncol. 24, 431–436 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Facon, T. et al. Superiority of melphalan–prednisone (MP) + thalidomide (THAL) over MP and autologous stem cell transplantation in the treatment of newly diagnosed elderly patients with multiple myeloma. J. Clin. Oncol. 24 (Suppl. 18), Abstract 1 (2006).

  6. Weber, D. et al. Lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone provides improved overall survival compared to high-dose dexamethasone alone for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (MM): results of 2 Phase III studies (MM-009, MM-010) and subgroup analysis of patients with impaired renal function. Blood 108 (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts), Abstract 3547 (2006).

  7. Palumbo, A. et al. Oral revlimid plus melphalan and prednisone (R-MP) for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: results of a multicenter Phase I/II study. Blood 108 (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts), Abstract 800 (2006).

  8. Mitsiades, C. S. et al. Antimyeloma activity of heat shock protein-90 inhibition. Blood 107,1092–1100 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Schey, S. A. et al. Phase I study of an immunomodulatory thalidomide analog, CC-4047, in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma. J. Clin. Oncol. 22, 3269–3276 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Hideshima, T. et al. Perifosine, an oral bioactive novel alkylphospholipid, inhibits Akt and induces in vitro and in vivo cytotoxicity in human multiple myeloma cells. Blood 107, 4053–4062 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Silvestris, F. Myeloma bone disease: pathogenetic mechanisms and clinical assessment. Leuk. Res. 30, 1016–1020 (2006).

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Matthew Strobeck is at Westfield Capital Management, One Financial Center, 24th Floor, Boston, 02111-262, Massachusetts, USA

    Matthew Strobeck

Authors
  1. Matthew Strobeck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

Both the author and his employer have or have had beneficial interests in shares of companies mentioned in the article.

Related links

Related links

FURTHER INFORMATION

Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

The International Myeloma Foundation

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Strobeck, M. Multiple myeloma therapies. Nat Rev Drug Discov 6, 181–182 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2269

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2269

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing