[Combination chemotherapy with vincristine, melphalan, CCNA, cyclophosphamide, prednisone in myeloma]

The authors report the results of a prospective, multi-centre trial involving 87 patients with previously untreated myeloma who were treated by combination chemotherapy consisting of melphalan, cyclophosphamide, CCNU, prednisone and vincristine. 83.1% of patients had a high tumour mass (stage III on Durie and Salmon's classification). The response to treatment could be evaluated in 76 patients and 70% were found to respond. The median actuarial survival of the whole population is 30 months. The survival is significantly longer (p less than 0.001) in responders (median 40 months) than in non-responders (median: 17 months); the survival is significantly shorter (p less than 0.01) in subjects with renal failure (median: 10 months) than in subjects without renal failure (median: 36 months). This treatment is sufficiently well tolerated to be administered on an outpatient basis. One case of acute monoblastic leukaemia was observed. These results are similar to those reported in the literature.