Continued Overall Survival Advantage Reported From Pivotal Trial of VELCADE(R) (Bortezomib) for Injection Based Therapy in Patients With Previously Untreated Multip...(rm). This OS advantage was mainta...),Health

"This update demonstrates that the use of VELCADE upfront delivers an improvement in overall survival, which is maintained over time. Importantly, this benefit was observed regardless of subsequent therapy," said Nancy Simonian, M.D., Chief Medical Officer, Millennium.

Patients in the VcMP arm of the study received nine 6-week cycles of VELCADE at 1.3 mg/m(2) (days 1, 4, 8, 11, 22, 25, 29 and 32 in cycles 1 through 4 and days 1, 8, 22 and 29 in cycles 5 through 9) with melphalan 9 mg/m(2) and prednisone 60 mg/m(2) (days 1 through 4 in cycles 1 through 9), or melphalan plus prednisone, in the same dose and schedule administered to the patients in the VcMP arm. Patients remained on VcMP therapy for a median of 46 weeks (eight cycles) out of the planned nine cycles versus 39 weeks (seven cycles) with melphalan and prednisone.

About Multiple Myeloma

Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematologic malignancy and although the disease is predominantly a cancer of the elderly (the median age of onset is 70 years), recent statistics indicate both increasing incidence and younger age of onset. In the U.S., more than 50,000 individuals have MM and 20,000 new cases are diagnosed each year. Worldwide there are approximately 74,000 new cases and over
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