Persistent Benefit of VTD (Bortezomib/Thalidomide/Dexamethasone) As Pretransplant Induction Therapy for Multiple Myeloma: Long-Term Follow-up of a Randomized Phase 3 Pethema/GEM Study

• Published in: Blood 2014-12, Vol.124 (21), p.3457-3457
• Main Authors: Rosiñol, Laura, Oriol, Albert, Teruel, Ana Isabel, Hernandez, Dolores, Blanchard, M Jesús, De La Rubia, Javier, Granell, Miquel, Besalduch, Juan, Palomera, Luis, Gonzalez, Yolanda, Echebeste, M Asunción, Díaz-Mediavilla, Joaquín, Hernandez, Miguel T, de Arriba, Felipe, Gutierrez, Norma Carmen, Martín-Ramos, M Luisa, Cibeira, M Teresa, Mateos, Maria Victoria, Martinez-Lopez, Joaquin, Alegre, Adrian, Lahuerta, Juan José, San Miguel, Jesus F., Blade, Joan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0006-4971; 1528-0020
• DOI: 10.1182/blood.V124.21.3457.3457

Background: The randomized PETHEMA/GEM phase III trial GEM05menos65 (www.clinicaltrials.gov NCT00461747) demonstrated that pretransplant induction therapy with VTD resulted in a significantly higher CR rate both, pretransplant and postransplant and in a significantly longer progression-free survival (PFS) when compared with thalidomide/dexamethasone (TD) and combination chemotherapy plus bortezomib (VBMCP/VBAD/B) (Rosiñol et al, Blood 2012). We report here the long-term results of the trial, five years after the last patient was included. Methods: From April 6, 2006 to August 5, 2009, 386 patients younger than 65 years with newly diagnosed symptomatic multiple myeloma (MM) were randomized to receive three different induction regimens: six 4-week cycles of TD (thalidomide 200 mg daily; dexamethasone 40 mg on days 1-4 and 9-12) vs. six 4-week cycles of VTD (TD at identical doses plus i.v. bortezomib 1.3 mg/m2 on days 1, 4, 8 and 11) vs. combination chemotherapy plus bortezomib (4 cycles of alternating VBMCP and VBAD chemotherapy followed by two cycles of i.v. bortezomib at the usual dose of 1.3 mg/m2 on days 1,4,8,11 every 3 weeks). The duration of the induction therapy was 24 weeks in all arms. All patients were planned to undergo ASCT with high-dose melphalan at 200 mg/m2 followed by maintenance therapy with thalidomide/bortezomib (TV) vs. thalidomide (T) vs. alfa-2b-interferon (alfa2-IFN) for 3 years. One-hundred and thirty patients were allocated to VTD, 127 to TD and 129 to VBMCP/VBAD/B. Seventy out of the 330 patients (21%) with cytogenetic studies had high-risk cytogenetics [t(4;14), t(14;16) and/or 17p deletion]. Patient characteristics at diagnosis and prognostic factors such as ISS, cytogenetics and maintenance arm were similarly distributed in the 3 arms. Results: After a median follow-up of 70.6 months, VTD resulted in a significantly longer PFS when compared with TD and VBMCP/VBAD/B (56.1 vs 29.2 vs 39.9 months, p=0.005) (Figure 1). The estimated overall survival (OS) at 8 years was 60% with no significant differences among the 3 arms. In the overall series, the PFS was significantly shorter in patients with high-risk cytogenetics compared with patients with standard-risk (15.7 vs. 44.3 months, p=0.003). In the TD and in the VBMCP/VBAD/B arm patients with high-risk cytogenetics had a significantly shorter PFS than patients with standard-risk (8.9 vs 32.8 months, p=0.04 in TD group; 14.1 vs. 43.3 months, p=0.05 in VBMCP/VBAD/B group). However, th