A phase II study of alternating combination chemotherapy in 55 myeloma patients. A comparison with non-alternating combination chemotherapy and treatment with a single cytostatic.

Fifty-five consecutive patients with stage II and III myeloma were treated at 7 centers with alternating combinations of 7 cytostatics and prednisolone. 30/48 evaluable patients responded to the combination chemotherapy, 10/55 patients died within 15 months, and the median survival was 40 months. No advantage could be shown over a previous non-alternating combination of two cytostatics. However, stage III patients had a significantly better survival statistically (p less than 0.05) than earlier patients from the same center given only one cytostatic.