A combination of lenalidomide and dexamethasone can prove effective for treating patients with multiple myeloma. This finding was disclosed during a study a study conducted at 44 centers in the United States and Canada and involving 353 patients with myeloma.

Pairing a new derivative of thalidomide with a steroid can be used to slowdown multiple myeloma progression besides helping patients live for long, as per the study.

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.

It was remarked by 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 that a combination of the two drugs can be effective since the complication could immune to one therapy.