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.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

200 mg/m2 melphalan—the gold standard for multiple myeloma

Palumbo and coauthors report on the results of a randomized trial comparing two doses of melphalan in patients with symptomatic multiple myeloma. Overall complete response rates, median progression-free survival and projected 5-year overall survival were significantly higher among patients receiving the higher melphalan dose. These results confirm that for this patient population melphalan 200 mg/m2 should remain the gold standard conditioning regimen.

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

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

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

References

  1. Palumbo, A. et al. Melphalan 200 mg/m2 vs melphalan 100 mg/m2 in newly diagnosed myeloma patients: a prospective multicenter phase 3 study. Blood 115, 1873–1879 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Moreau, P. et al. Comparison of 200 mg/m2 melphalan and 8 Gy total body irradiation plus 140 mg/m2 melphalan as conditioning regimens for peripheral blood stem cell transplantation in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: final analysis of the Intergroupe Francophone du Myélome 9502 randomized trial. Blood 99, 731–735 (2002).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Cavo, M. et al. Superior complete response rate and progression-free survival after autologous transplantation with up-front velcade-thalidomide-dexamethasone compared with thalidomide-dexamethasone in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma [abstract]. Blood 112, a158 (2008).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Harousseau, J. L. et al. Velcade/dexamethasone (Vel/D) versus VAD as induction treatment prior to autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT) in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (MM): updated results of the IFM 2005/01 trial [abstract]. Blood 110, a450 (2007).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Chanan-Khan, A. A. & Giralt, S. Importance of achieving a complete response in multiple myeloma and the impact of novel agents. J. Clin. Oncol. 28, 2612–2624 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  6. Wang, X. S. et al. Clinical factors associated with cancer-related fatigue in patients being treated for leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. J. Clin. Oncol. 20, 1319–1328 (2002).

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Anderson, K. O. et al. Symptom burden in patients undergoing autologous stem-cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant. 39, 759–766 (2007).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Phillips, G. L. et al. Amifostine and autologous hematopoietic stem cell support of escalating-dose melphalan: a phase I study. Biol. Blood Marrow Transplant. 10, 473–483 (2004).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Moreau, P. et al. Tandem autologous stem cell transplantation in high-risk de novo multiple myeloma: final results of the prospective and randomized IFM 99–04 protocol. Blood 107, 397–403 (2006).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Badros, A. Z. The role of maintenance therapy in the treatment of multiple myeloma. J. Natl Compr. Canc. Netw. 8 (Suppl. 1), S21–S27 (2010).

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author has acted as a consultant for and received honoraria from the following companies: Celgene, Genzyme, Millenium Pharmaceuticals and Novartis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Giralt, S. 200 mg/m2 melphalan—the gold standard for multiple myeloma. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 7, 490–491 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.104

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2010.104

This article is cited by

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