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news.Researchers have suggested that the combination of Johnson & Johnson's Doxil and Millennium Pharmaceuticals' Velcade provides a nearly three-month improvement in time to disease progression in multiple myeloma patients compared to Velcade alone.
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Velcade is an FDA approved treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.
The study results demonstrate that patients who received a combination of Doxil and Velcade had 45% less risk of their disease progressing and a statistically significant improvement in median time to disease progression.
“This pivotal clinical trial suggests that the combination of Doxil and Velcade may improve the prognosis for patients with resistant multiple myeloma,” said lead study investigator Robert Orlowski, of the University of North Carolina.
“It confirms the preclinical model demonstrating that this novel combination works synergistically to more effectively eradicate plasma cells.”
There were 43% complete or partial responses in the Velcade monotherapy group and 48% in the combination group. The difference in response rates was not statistically significant.
The overall survival analysis showed a trend favoring the combination therapy group, but the results were not mature and had not reached statistical significance at the time of the interim analysis.