In a study involving 353 patients with myeloma and conducted at 44 centers in the United States and Canada, it was found that a combination of Lenalidomide and dexamethasone found effective against multiple myeloma.

It was found during the study that pairing a new thalidomide derivative with a steroid tends to slowdown the progression of multiple myeloma, which is an incurable bone marrow cancer. It was also brought into the notice that such a combination can prove effective for prolonging the lives of patients who have relapsed from earlier treatments.

From News-Medical.Net:

“These trials highlight how large-scale cooperation in a team effort by myeloma investigators can quickly confirm benefits and introduce new active agents for patients with this disease,” Weber says. “We also owe a debt to the willing patients who participated in this study.”

Multiple myeloma is caused by formation of abnormal plasma cells, a type of white blood cell, in the bone marrow. These cells multiply rapidly, crowding out normal red and white blood cells and platelets. Tumors starting in the bone marrow may cause pain, and weaken bones predisposing them to fracture. In the United States about 20,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma annually, and about 11,000 succumb to the disease each year.

Thalidomide, a breakthrough drug for multiple myeloma, is produced and marketed by Celgene Corporation as Thalomid(r). The company chemically altered thalidomide to make lenalidomide, known commercially as Revlimid(r), in hopes of reducing side effects and improving efficacy against the disease. The drugs attack both the malignant cells and the cellular environment that nurtures them.

According to lead author Donna Weber, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Lymphoma and Myeloma at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, a combination of drugs proves to be imperative in continuous treatment as the disease can become resistant to one therapy.