Long-term survival in myelomatosis. A report to the MRC working party on leukaemia in adults.
The patients entered into the Medical Research Council's First Myelomatosis Trial (MRCI) have been followed up for a minimum of 12 years, and an attempt has been made to define features recorded at presentation that might predict long-term survival and to estimate the risk of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) induced by treatment with either of the alkylating agents, melphalan or cyclophosphamide. In this series, the chance of a patient surviving 5 years was strongly related to the haemoglobin, blood urea concentration (BUC) and performance status at presentation. Other features, including paraprotein levels, type of heavy or light chain, bone lesions and recovery of polyclonal immunoglobulin added little useful information. Six patients died of AML, all after more than 4 years in the trial; the incidence of AML among 4-year survivors was 10%. All six patients had been treated with continuous melphalan and the implications of this for future chemotherapy for myelomatosis are discussed.