Biology and therapy of multiple myeloma in 1996

Since the introduction of melphalan-prednisone for the treatment of multiple myeloma (MM) three decades ago, the prognosis of patients has not been improved by the addition of other agents, probably due to marked resistance of tumor cells, even at diagnosis, to commonly employed cytotoxic drugs. The biological basis for drug resistance is reviewed and current methods of diagnosis and staging delineated. The overview on treatment focuses on recurrent advances with myeloablative therapy demonstrating, in randomized and historically controlled trials, that high-dose therapy increases the incidence of true complete remission (CR) from 5% to approximately 40%, with an extension of median event-free (EFS) and overall (OS) survival durations to 3.5 and > or = 5 years, respectively. It is concluded that high-dose therapy should be offered to all patients with symptomatic meyloma, and current therapeutic research explores posttransplant immunotherapy.