In patients who had undergone stem-cell transplantation, lenalidomide maintenance therapy improved progression-free and overall survival, though at the expense of some increased hematologic toxicity ...and second malignant tumors.
A goal of therapy for multiple myeloma, to induce complete remission and prolong survival, is usually accomplished with combination therapy.
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Autologous hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation is often used after induction chemotherapy to improve the response or to consolidate complete remission.
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However, since most patients with multiple myeloma have disease recurrence or progression after transplantation, maintenance therapies have been used to prolong complete remission and prevent relapse or progressive disease. Low-dose melphalan, interferon alfa, and glucocorticoids have been used for maintenance after primary therapy, but their long-term use is limited by toxicity and modest efficacy.
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Five studies involving patients who . . .
Background: Prostate cancer affects one of six men during their lifetime. Dietary factors are postulated to influence the
development and progression of prostate cancer. Low-fat diets and flaxseed ...supplementation may offer potentially protective
strategies.
Methods: We undertook a multisite, randomized controlled trial to test the effects of low-fat and/or flaxseed-supplemented
diets on the biology of the prostate and other biomarkers. Prostate cancer patients ( n = 161) scheduled at least 21 days before prostatectomy were randomly assigned to one of the following arms: ( a ) control (usual diet), ( b ) flaxseed-supplemented diet (30 g/d), ( c ) low-fat diet (<20% total energy), or ( d ) flaxseed-supplemented, low-fat diet. Blood was drawn at baseline and before surgery and analyzed for prostate-specific antigen,
sex hormone-binding globulin, testosterone, insulin-like growth factor-I and binding protein-3, C-reactive protein, and total
and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Tumors were assessed for proliferation (Ki-67, the primary endpoint) and apoptosis.
Results: Men were on protocol an average of 30 days. Proliferation rates were significantly lower ( P < 0.002) among men assigned to the flaxseed arms. Median Ki-67-positive cells/total nuclei ratios (×100) were 1.66 (flaxseed-supplemented
diet) and 1.50 (flaxseed-supplemented, low-fat diet) versus 3.23 (control) and 2.56 (low-fat diet). No differences were observed
between arms with regard to side effects, apoptosis, and most serologic endpoints; however, men on low-fat diets experienced
significant decreases in serum cholesterol ( P = 0.048).
Conclusions: Findings suggest that flaxseed is safe and associated with biological alterations that may be protective for
prostate cancer. Data also further support low-fat diets to manage serum cholesterol. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(12):3577–87)
Approximately 40,000 men die each year of hormone-refractory prostate cancer (HRPC). The results of treatment with chemotherapy have been disappointing to date, with no trials demonstrating a benefit ...with respect to survival duration. Corticosteroids and mitoxantrone each have been shown to be active agents in this disease. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate an advantage of mitoxantrone and hydrocortisone (M+H) over hydrocortisone alone with respect to survival duration.
Two hundred forty-two patients with HRPC were randomized to receive either M+H or hydrocortisone alone. Patients were monitored for survival, time to disease progression, time to treatment failure, response, and quality-of-life (QOL) parameters.
Treatment in both arms was well tolerated. Although there was a delay in time to treatment failure and disease progression in favor of M+H over hydrocortisone alone, there was no difference in overall survival (12.3 months for M+H v 12.6 months for hydrocortisone alone). There was an indication that QOL was better with M+H, in particular with respect to pain control.
M+H generated more frequent responses and a delay in both time to treatment failure and disease progression compared with hydrocortisone alone. In addition, there was a possible benefit of M+H with respect to pain control over hydrocortisone alone. No improvement in survival was observed. Although M+H could be viewed as a palliative option for patients with HRPC, new drugs and novel strategies are needed to improve survival for this disease.
Relapse remains the major cause of death in older patients transplanted for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first complete remission or for patients with advanced myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) at ...any age. Conventional myeloablative conditioning followed by allogeneic blood or marrow transplantation is associated with significantly less relapse compared with reduced-intensity conditioning when performed in younger patients with AML or MDS, but the toxicity of this approach in older patients is prohibitive. We hypothesized that pharmacokinetic targeting to optimize busulfan (BU) exposure, combined with the administration of azacitidine (AZA) post-transplant would mitigate the risk of relapse while reducing nonrelapse mortality and ultimately improve progression-free survival (PFS). On this phase II multicenter study, 63 patients (40 unrelated donors and 23 matched related donors) received a uniform conditioning regimen consisting of fludarabine i.v. (days –7 to –3), BU targeted to a daily area under the curve (AUC) of 4000 μM/min (days –6 to –3) after the administration of a 25-mg/m2 i.v. test dose on 1 day between days –14 to –9, and antithymocyte globulin (days –6, –5, and –4 (2 doses for matched related donors and 3 for matched unrelated donors only). Beginning on days +42 to +90, all patients were planned to receive up to 6 monthly cycles of AZA at 32 mg/m2 subcutaneously for 5 days. The median age was 62 years (range, 44 to 74); 13 had AML and 50 had MDS; 87% of patients were within 20% of the target AUC based on a validation sample. Forty-one patients (65%) started AZA at a median of 61 days (range, 43 to 91) post-transplant, and 17 patients (41%) completed all 6 cycles of AZA. The cumulative incidence of nonrelapse mortality at 2 years was 33.4% (95% confidence interval CI, 22%-45%). The cumulative incidence of relapse was 25% (95% CI, 15%-37%) at 2 years. With a median follow-up of 58.9 months, the estimated PFS probability at 2 years and 5 years after transplantation was 41.2% (80% CI, 33.9%-49.9%) and 26.9% (80% CI, 20.4%-35.5%), respectively, for the entire group with a median PFS of 15.8 months (95% CI, 6.7 to 28.3). The probability of overall survival at 2 and 5 years was 45.7% (95% CI, 34.9%-59.9%) and 31.2% (95% CI, 21.3% to 45.8%), respectively, for the entire group with a median overall survival of 19.2 months (95% CI, 8.7 to 37.5). In summary, we demonstrated the feasibility of a novel reduced-intensity conditioning regimen with test dose BU targeted to an AUC of 4000 μM/min. The feasibility of AZA in this setting appears to be limited if applied to an unselected population of older hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients. (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01168219.)
The purpose of this study was to determine the maximum tolerated dose and dose-limiting toxicities of fish oil fatty acid
capsules containing Ï-3 fatty acid ethyl esters. Twenty-two patients with ...neoplastic disease not amenable to curative therapy
who had lost 2% of body weight over a previous 1 month time period were given an escalating dose of fish oil fatty acids.
The maximum tolerated dose was found to be 0.3 g/kg per day of this preparation. This means that a 70-kg patient can generally
tolerate up to 21 1-g capsules/day containing 13.1 g of eicosapentaenoic acid + docosahexaenoic acid, the two major Ï-3 fatty
acids. Dose-limiting toxicity was gastrointestinal, mainly diarrhea, and a poorly described toxicity designated as âunable
to tolerate in esophagus or stomach.â A patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia taking the fish oil provided an unusual
opportunity to perform a detailed biochemical study of the effect of fish oil capsules on the lipids of malignant cells at
several sequential time points in treatment. Studies of the malignant lymphocytes, serum, and whole blood of this one patient
revealed an increase in eicosapentaenoic acid, the major component of the fish oil capsules, during fish oil capsule treatment.
This study provides a scientific basis for the selection of Ï-3 fatty acid doses for future studies in cancer. The maximum
tolerated dose found is considerably higher than anticipated from published studies of many human diseases. The observation
of a modification of the lipids of leukemic cells, serum, and blood in a patient with chronic leukemia provides a biochemical
basis for a possible effect of fish oil supplements on cancer cachexia and tumor growth.
Long-term survival rates for older patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are extremely low. Previous observational studies suggest that allogeneic hematopoietic stem-cell ...transplantation (HSCT) may improve overall survival (OS) because of lower rates of relapse. We sought to prospectively determine the value of HSCT for older patients with AML in first complete remission.
We conducted a prospective multicenter phase II study to assess the efficacy of reduced-intensity conditioning HSCT for patients between the ages of 60 and 74 years with AML in first complete remission. The primary end point was disease-free survival at 2 years after HSCT. Secondary end points included nonrelapse mortality (NRM), graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), relapse, and OS.
In all, 114 patients with a median age of 65 years received transplantations. The majority (52%) received transplantations from unrelated donors and were given antithymocyte globulin for GVHD prophylaxis. Disease-free survival and OS at 2 years after transplantation were 42% (95% CI, 33% to 52%) and 48% (95% CI, 39% to 58%), respectively, for the entire group and 40% (95% CI, 29% to 55%) and 50% (95% CI, 38% to 64%) for the unrelated donor group. NRM at 2 years was 15% (95% CI, 8% to 21%). Grade 2 to 4 acute GVHD occurred in 9.6% (95% CI, 4% to 15%) of patients, and chronic GVHD occurred in 28% (95% CI, 19% to 36%) of patients. The cumulative incidence of relapse at 2 years was 44% (95% CI, 35% to 53%).
Reduced-intensity conditioning HSCT to maintain remission in selected older patients with AML is relatively well tolerated and appears to provide superior outcomes when compared with historical patients treated without HSCT. GVHD and NRM rates were lower than expected. Future transplantation studies in these patients should focus on further reducing the risk of relapse.
To test the hypothesis that the efficacy and toxicity of suramin in the treatment of patients with hormone-refractory prostate cancer was dose dependent.
Patients were randomized with equal ...probability to receive low-, intermediate-, or high-dose suramin (total doses 3.192, 5.320, and 7.661 g/m(2), respectively). Overall survival, time to progression, and response rate (prostate-specific antigen PSA and objective) for each treatment arm were compared. Relationships between plasma suramin concentrations and response, toxicity, and survival were also evaluated.
Three hundred ninety patients were randomized. For the low-, intermediate-, and high-dose arms, the median survival time was 16, 14, and 13 months, respectively (P =.49). The objective response rate was 9%, 7%, and 15%, respectively (P =.10). PSA response rates were 24%, 28%, and 34%, respectively (P =.082). Landmark analyses of a 50% decline in PSA at 20 weeks showed a significant correlation with survival. There was a dose-response relationship between dose and toxicity. After adjusting for treatment arm, the measured suramin concentration was not associated with clinical response, PSA response, survival, or toxicity.
Although high-dose suramin was associated with higher objective and PSA response rates, these were not statistically significant. Overall, no dose-response relationship was observed for survival or progression-free survival, but toxicity was increased with the higher dose. Patients treated with the low-dose level experienced modest toxicity, making it the preferred arm on this study. The lack of a dose-response relationship and the toxicity profile observed raise questions regarding the utility of suramin, particularly high-dose suramin, as administered on this schedule.
In the CALGB (Alliance) 100104 study, lenalidomide versus placebo after autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT) was investigated for patients with newly diagnosed myeloma. That study showed ...improved time to progression and overall survival and an increase in second primary malignancies for lenalidomide at a median follow-up of 34 months. Here we report an updated intention-to-treat analysis of CALGB (Alliance) 100104 at a median follow-up of 91 months.
Patients were eligible for this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial if they had symptomatic disease requiring treatment; had received, at most, two induction regimens; and had achieved stable disease or better in the first 100 days after ASCT. We randomly assigned patients to either lenalidomide or placebo groups using permuted block randomisation, with a fixed block size of six. Randomisation was stratified by three factors: normal or elevated β2 microglobulin concentration at registration (≤2·5 mg/L vs >2·5 mg/L), previous use or non-use of thalidomide during induction therapy, and previous use or non-use of lenalidomide during induction therapy. The starting dose was two capsules (10 mg) per day, escalated to three capsules (15 mg) per day after 3 months. The primary endpoint was time to progression (time of progressive disease or death from any cause), with intention-to-treat analysis. This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier NCT00114101. New patients are no longer being recruited, but some patients remain on treatment and in follow-up.
Between April 14, 2005, and July 2, 2009, 460 patients were randomly assigned to receive either lenalidomide (n=231) or placebo (n=229). After three interim analyses, the study was unblinded at a median follow-up of 18 months, at which point 86 (67%) of 128 patients without progressive disease in the placebo group chose to cross over to the lenalidomide group. The median follow-up for the updated survival analysis, as of Oct 19, 2016, was 91 months (IQR 83·6-103·1). The median time to progression was 57·3 months (95% CI 44·2-73·3) for the lenalidomide group and 28·9 months (23·0-36·3) for the placebo group (hazard ratio 0·57, 95% CI 0·46-0·71; p<0·0001). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were neutropenia (116 50% patients in the lenalidomide group and 41 18% patients in the placebo group) and thrombocytopenia (34 15% patients in the lenalidomide group and 12 5% patients in the placebo group). 18 (8%) haematological and 14 (6%) solid tumour second primary malignancies were diagnosed after randomisation and before disease progression in the lenalidomide group, compared with three (1%) haematological and nine (4%) solid tumour second primary malignancies in the placebo group. Three haematological and five solid tumour second primary malignancies in the placebo group were in the crossover subgroup.
Despite an increase in haematological adverse events and second primary malignancies, lenalidomide maintenance therapy after ASCT significantly improved time to progression and could be considered a standard of care.
The National Cancer Institute.
Cancer and Leukemia Group B 19808 (CALGB 19808) is the only randomized trial of a second-generation P-glycoprotein (Pgp) modulator in untreated patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) younger than ...age 60 years. We randomly assigned 302 patients to receive induction chemotherapy regimens consisting of cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C; A), daunorubicin (D), and etoposide (E), without (ADE) or with (ADEP) PSC-833 (P). The incidence of complete remission was 75% with both regimens. Reversible grade 3 and 4 liver and mucosal toxicities were significantly more common with ADEP. Therapy-related mortality was 7% and did not differ by induction arm. Excess cardiotoxicity was not seen with high doses of D in ADE. The median disease-free survival was 1.34 years in the ADE arm and 1.09 years in the ADEP arm (P = .74, log-rank test); the median overall survival was 1.86 years in the ADE arm and 1.69 years in the ADEP arm (P = .82). There was no evidence of a treatment difference within any identifiable patient subgroup. Inhibition of Pgp-mediated drug efflux by PSC-833 did not improve clinical outcomes in younger patients with untreated AML. This trial was registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov as #NCT00006363.
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