Latest news from ASCO: Celgene's Revlimid; AbbVie's ABT-199; DelMar's VAL-083

Continuing our coverage of the ongoing American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago, herewith are the latest presentations on important research in the field of cancer therapies, including some early-stage data.

US biotech firm Celgene (Nasdaq: CELG) announced results from a study comparing melphalan, prednisone and Revlimid (lenalidomide) (MPR) with high-dose chemotherapy and tandem autologous stem cell transplant (MEL200), as well as evaluating the effect of lenalidomide maintenance in patients with newly-diagnosed multiple myeloma.

In the study, a total of 402 patients received four 28-day courses of lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone at diagnosis, and then were randomly assigned to receive six cycles of MPR (n=202) or MEL200 (n=200), and to receive either continuous lenalidomide maintenance treatment or to be followed by observation. After a median follow-up of 49 months, median progression-free survival (PFS), the primary endpoint of the study, was 24 months with MPR compared to 38 months with MEL200 (HR 1.69, p<0.0001). The five-year overall survival (OS) rate was 62% for MPR compared to 71% for MEL200 (HR 1.25, p=0.27). The most common grade 3/4 adverse events were neutropenia (23%), cutaneous toxicity (5%), infections (4%), second primary malignancies (4%), thrombocytopenia (4%), diarrhea (3%), fatigue (3%) and anemia (2%).