Susan London

Fully 88% of older adults with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma have at least a very good partial response when treated with low-dose autologous stem cell transplantation that is preceded by bortezomib-containing induction therapy and followed by lenalidomide-containing consolidation and maintenance therapy, according to trial results from the University of Turin in Italy.

An antibody to the insulin-like growth factor type 1 receptor (IGF-1R), when given with chemotherapy, is active as first-line therapy in advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, especially squamous type, finds the first trial to test an IGF inhibitor in lung cancer. Daniel D. Karp, MD, of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, reported the trial results at ASCO 2008 (abstract 8015).

When used as adjuvant therapy for node-positive breast cancer, the combination of high-dose chemotherapy (HDC) and stem cell transplantation modestly improves relapse-free survival relative to standard-dose chemotherapy (SDC). But it offers at best minimal benefit in terms of overall survival, according to a meta-analysis presented at SABCS.