Cancer Treatment Today

There are relatively few effective treatment options for patients with multiple myeloma. Traditional treatment includes combination chemotherapy with melphalan/prednisone and vincristine/doxorubicin/dexamethasone. Myeloablation with high-dose chemotherapy and subsequent rescue with ASCT is a mainstay for patients fit enough to withstand the regimen, usually patients less than 65 years of age. The immunomodulators, thalidomide and lenalidomide, alone

Treatment for systemic amyloidosis targets the aberrant plasma cell clone to prevent further synthesis and deposition of the amyloid protein. Conventional therapy usually combines oral melphalan with prednisone (MP), shown to yield higher response rates and longer survival than colchicine or prior therapies. This was investigated in a three arm study in 1997. The patients were randomly assigned to receive colchicine (72 patients), melphalan and prednisone

Bortezomib is a first-in-class proteasome inhibitor that has shown remarkable efficacy in multiple myeloma. Bortezomib specifically targets the ubiquitin-proteasome pathway; the proteasome plays a key role in the degradation of ubiquinated proteins in general, and specifically proteins that control tumor cell growth and survival. By targeting the proteasome and acting on the multiple myeloma cells as well as the microenvironment, bortezomib has been

Buprenorphin comes in a sublingual and transdermal formulation. In October 2002, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved buprenorphine monotherapy product, Subutex®, and a buprenorphine/naloxone combination product, Suboxone®, for use in opioid addiction treatment. The combination product is designed to decrease the potential for abuse by injection. The transdermal form is well-established for treatment of chronic cancer pain and. It was