Panobinostat may marginally improve overall survival among patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, according to a study published in The Lancet Haematology.1

The PANORAMA-1 (Panobinostat or Placebo With Bortezomib and Dexamethasone in Patients With Relapsed Multiple Myeloma; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01023308) showed that adding panobinostat to bortezomib and dexamethasone improves progression-free survival over the latter 2 drugs with placebo only. In this paper the authors present the overall survival results of this phase 3 trial.

Of 768 randomly assigned patients, 387 received panobinostat and 381 received placebo. Median overall survival in the treatment group was 40.3 months; this figure was 35.8 months in the placebo group. Among Asian patients, however, overall survival was improved by 9.7 months, though the authors stress the small sample size of this group should deter readers from drawing strong conclusions from this statistic.

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Sixty percent of patients in the treatment group had at least 1 serious adverse event, versus 42% of patients in the placebo group.

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The authors conclude that panobinostat has a “potential” overall survival benefit for patients with relapsed myeloma. This benefit may be particularly strong for Asian patients and among patients with relapsed and refractory disease. Subgroup-oriented trials should attempt to verify these findings.

Reference

  1. San-Miguel JF, Hungria VT, Yoon SS, et al. Overall survival of patients with relapsed multiple myeloma treated with panobinostat or placebo plus bortezomib and dexamethasone (the PANORAMA 1 trial): a randomised, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial. Lancet Haematol. In press. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3026(16)30147-8.

Topics:

Hematologic Cancers Multiple Myeloma