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Incidence of extramedullary disease in patients with multiple myeloma in the era of novel therapy, and the activity of pomalidomide on extramedullary myeloma

Leukemia volume 25, pages 906–908 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

We studied 174 consecutive patients with relapsed refractory multiple myeloma (MM) enrolled on a phase II clinical trial of pomalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone at Mayo Clinic. Extramedullary disease (EMD) was present at the time of trial entry in 7.5% (13 of 174 patients). The rate of EMD in the first 3 years following diagnosis of MM was 3%. The response of EMD to pomalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone included two complete and two partial responses among the 13 patients (response rate, 31%). Overall survival measured from trial entry was significantly shorter for patients with treatment-emergent EMD compared with those who did not have EMD, (median 16 months versus not reached, P=0.002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Hematology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    K Detweiler Short, S V Rajkumar, F Buadi, S Hayman, A Dispenzieri, M Gertz, S Kumar, R A Kyle & M Q Lacy

  2. Department of Biostatistics, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    D Larson

  3. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Mayo Clinic in Arizona, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

    J Mikhael

  4. Division of Hematology/Oncology, Mayo Clinic in Florida, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    V Roy

Authors
  1. K Detweiler Short
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  2. S V Rajkumar
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  3. D Larson
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  4. F Buadi
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  5. S Hayman
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  6. A Dispenzieri
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  7. M Gertz
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  8. S Kumar
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  9. J Mikhael
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  10. V Roy
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  11. R A Kyle
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  12. M Q Lacy
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Correspondence to M Q Lacy.

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Competing interests

MG has received honoraria from Celgene, Millennium, Genzyme and Amgen. SK has received research support from Celgene, Novartis, Millennium, Bayer and Genzyme. MQL and AD have received research funding/grants from Celgene. The remaining authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Short, K., Rajkumar, S., Larson, D. et al. Incidence of extramedullary disease in patients with multiple myeloma in the era of novel therapy, and the activity of pomalidomide on extramedullary myeloma. Leukemia 25, 906–908 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.29

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