Successful Trial of Anticancer Drug Ends Early
The first new treatment in more than a decade for patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, has proved so effective that the manufacturer, Millennium, has halted the control arm of the trial to give patients receiving generic dexamethasone the option of immediately switching to bortezomib (Velcade™ for Injection, Millennium). The first of a new class of medications called protea-some inhibitors, bortezomib was compared with high-dose dexamethasone in a phase III trial of nearly 700 patients. An interim analysis found a statistically significant improvement in the time to disease progression.
