43.1 percent of study patients had a complete response
FRIDAY, Oct. 7, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Adding daratumumab to standard treatment for advanced cases of multiple myeloma may significantly improve patients’ chances of a response and even recovery, according to a study published in the Oct. 6 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
Meletios Dimopoulos, M.D., a professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, and colleagues recruited 569 myeloma patients and randomly assigned them to receive either lenalidomide and dexamethasone alone (standard treatment) or with the addition of daratumumab (three-drug regimen).
Over a median follow-up of 13.5 months, the researchers found that 41.0 percent of the patients in the standard-treatment group either died or saw their cancer progress. That compared with only 18.5 percent of patients receiving the three-drug regimen. Use of daratumumab was associated with more than doubling the rate of complete response: 43.1 percent, versus 19.2 percent.
“It is very likely that (this regimen) will be rapidly adopted by practicing physicians,” Dimopoulos told HealthDay.
Janssen Biotech, which markets daratumumab, funded the study. Dimopoulos and some of the co-researchers have served on the company’s advisory board.
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