title: Results of the first bortezomib-based induction therapy in the treatment of multiple myeloma.
abstract: This is a comment on the IFM 2005-01 Phase III trial that compared, for the first time, the efficacy and the safety of a bortezomib-containing induction regimen with conventional chemotherapy before autologous stem-cell transplantation in multiple myeloma (MM) patients. Between 2005 and 2008, 482 patients were randomized to vincristin/doxorubicin/dexamethasone (VAD), VAD + dexamethasone, cyclophosphamide, etoposide and cisplatin (DCEP) consolidation, bortezomib + dexamethasone and bortezomib + dexamethasone + DCEP consolidation followed by autologous stem-cell transplantation. The trial was conducted in 89 sites in France, Belgium and Switzerland. The novel agent-based induction therapy (bortezomib/dexamethasone) achieved higher complete remission (CR)/nearCR rates, as well as less treatment-related mortality, but higher rates of polyneuropathy than the conventional chemotherapy-based induction therapy (VAD/VAD + DCEP). The difference in progression-free survival (PFS) difference was not statistically significant but a trend to longer PFS was seen to favor to the bortezomib-containing regimen; bortezomib and dexamethason (BD) was, therefore, proposed to be a standard of care by the authors of the study.
authors.affiliation: Julius Maximilians University of Würzburg Medizinische Klinik II, Oberdürrbacher Str.6, Würzburg 97080, Germany. kortuem_m@klinik.uni-wuerzburg.de
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kortüm
authors.forename: Hermann
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Einsele