According to results from two large international studies, patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, a cancer of the cells in the bone marrow that make blood, who were treated with Revlimid (lenalidomide) and dexamethasone had significantly improved progression-free and overall survival compared with patients treated with dexamethasone and placebo.

Both the studies showed that patients treated with the lenalidomide and dexamethasone had an overall response rate of over 60 per cent compared with around 20 per cent for patients on the dexamethasone and placebo arm. Also, results showed that patients on the combination drug arm had a 30 per cent greater overall survival and more than twice the time to progression of the dexamethasone and placebo patients.

Lenalidomide is a more potent analogue of thalidomide and is marketed as Revlimid, by the Celgene Corporation. It belongs to a class of drugs known as immunomodulatory agents because they change the way the immune system works.

The drug has attracted attention because it's part of a new range of therapies that has dramatically changed quality of life for myeloma patients. It's an oral drug that can be taken at home, and it does not have the difficult side effects of conventional chemotherapies because it directly targets cancer cells and the processes that help them grow.