A team including UF researchers determined that a therapy could help treat a type of plasma cancer.
The team’s findings reveal that lenalidomide maintenance therapy was effective in helping prolong remission and lifespan after bone marrow transplants in patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. However, it was also associated with the development of secondary cancers such as breast cancer and leukemia.
The report was published May 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Dr. Jan S. Moreb, the clinical director of hematologic malignancies in UF College of Medicine’s hematology and oncology division, contributed to the study.
He said the benefits of the drug outweigh the risks.
“The incidence of secondary cancers is not that significant in comparison to the benefits they get from this treatment,” he said.
Moreb said lenalidomide stimulates the immune system and then slows the blood vessel creation that fuels the cancer.
The American Cancer Society estimates there will be 21,700 new cases diagnosed this year. People 67 and older are at the highest risk for the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“I think this is a milestone in the treatment of myeloma,” he said. “I’m hoping that the new generation of this drug can possibly be more effective and [cause] less side effects and not cause an increase in secondary malignancies. This drug looks promising.”
