Clinical study of multiple myeloma in the elderly

From January 1989 until December 1992, 120 elderly patients over 65 years old with multiple myeloma (MM) were enrolled with the Elderly Hematology Study Group (EHSG) with 14 institutions participating. Several courses of chemotherapy were conducted in 103 of the 120 patients, 33 patients with α-interferon (IFN) and 70 patients without IFN. The response rate (CR+PR) was 24.0% of all 120 cases, 24.2% of the group treated with IFN and 25.7% of those treated without IFN. Similarly, the efficacy rate (CR+PR+MR) of these groups were 78.8%, 81.8% and 78.8%, respectively. The 50% survival time was 31 months in the 120 cases as a whole, 44 months in the group treated with IFN and 38 months in the group treated without IFN. No significant difference was observed either in response rate (p=0.243) or survival time (p=0.262) in the groups treated with or without IFN.