CTI 1060: A Phase II Clinical Trial of Arsenic Trioxide and Dexamethasone as Therapy for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma
CTI 1060: A Phase II Clinical Trial of Arsenic Trioxide and Dexamethasone as Therapy for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma
RATIONALE: Drugs used in chemotherapy use different ways to stop cancer cells from dividing so they stop growing or die. Combining more than one drug may kill more cancer cells.
PURPOSE: Phase II trial to study the effectiveness of combining arsenic trioxide and dexamethasone in treating patients who have recurrent or refractory stage II or stage III multiple myeloma.
OBJECTIVES:
OUTLINE: Patients receive arsenic trioxide IV daily for 5 days during the first week only and then 2 days a week thereafter. Patients also receive IV or oral dexamethasone on days 1-4 every 4 weeks. Treatment continues in the absence of disease progression or unacceptable toxicity. Disease assessments are conducted every 4 weeks. Patients achieving complete response (CR) receive 2 additional courses of therapy after initial determination of CR.
Final assessments are conducted 4 weeks after the last study treatment and then annually thereafter.
PROJECTED ACCRUAL: A total of 55 patients will be accrued for this study.
DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:
Diagnosis of stage II or III multiple myeloma
Refractory myeloma defined as progressive disease (more than 25% increase in M protein or in radiographic findings of nonsecretory myeloma) despite up to 3 courses of prior cytotoxic chemotherapy
History of disease progression after prior steroid antimyeloma therapy
No smoldering myeloma
Measurable disease based on presence of serum and urine M protein and/or measurable plasmacytoma
PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:
Age:
Performance status:
Life expectancy:
Hematopoietic:
Hepatic:
Renal:
Cardiovascular:
Other:
PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:
Biologic therapy:
Chemotherapy:
Endocrine therapy:
Radiotherapy:
Surgery: