Progress report on vindesine treatment of melphalan-resistant multiple myeloma

Since 1979 the authors treated patients with melphalan resistant multiple myeloma with a vindesine prednisone combination. For three consecutive weeks vindesine was administered weekly (2 mg/m super(2)) followed by prednisone (100 mg orally for 5 days/weeks). Response was evaluated after two cycles fingertip paresthesias (50%), both reversible in the majority of patients, despite continued treatment. Haematological side-effects were mild: leukopenia was infrequently observed with a nadir of 1.1 x 10 super(9)/l. The death of three responding patients due to an infection (none of them with a leukopenia) propably resulted from severe immune depression, which could well be an effect of the prednisone dose.