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Treatment Options for Multiple Myeloma
Goals of Treatment for Multiple Myeloma
Goals of treatment for multiple myeloma (MM) include achievement and maintenance of remission of the disease and the prevention of complications such as bone fracture. Historically, only 50-60% of patients responded to therapy and the median survival for all stages of the disease was 3 years. There has been improvement in response rates and probably survival recently with the availability of new drugs such as thalidomide and bortezomib (Velcade). Although these drugs have only been recently used as initial therapy, response rates of 60-80% have been reported in phase II trials.
