Maintenance Therapy for Multiple Myeloma: How Long Should It Last?

Maintenance therapy for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma is usually continued indefinitely until disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Although effective, prolonged treatment is toxic and costly. Now, researchers have compared this approach to a fixed-duration strategy using 2 years of maintenance therapy.

This phase 3, randomized trial involved roughly 500 patients with standard-risk multiple myeloma who had completed induction therapy (lenalidomide, dexamethasone, and either carfilzomib or bortezomib) and were not undergoing autologous stem-cell transplantation (ASCT). Patients were randomized to receive maintenance lenalidomide for either 2 years or indefinitely.