Journal of the National Cancer Institute Advance Access originally published online on June 17, 2009
JNCI Journal of the National Cancer Institute 2009 101(13):964-966; doi:10.1093/jnci/djp127
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press.
CORRESPONDENCE |
Re: Tandem vs Single Autologous Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis
Affiliations of authors: Stem Cell Transplant and Myeloma Program (GT) and Pharmaceutics, Bioengineering, and Anesthesia (SEK), University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT; Myeloma Institute for Research & Therapy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR (BB)
Correspondence to: Guido Tricot, MD, Stem Cell Transplant and Myeloma Program, University of Utah, 30 N 1900 E 5C402, Salt Lake City, UT 84132 (e-mail: guido.tricot@hsc.utah.edu).
| The first 10% of the full text of this article appears below. |
We were surprised to read the recently published article in the Journal by Kumar et al. It was intended as a systematic review and meta-analysis comparing single vs tandem transplants in myeloma. The authors concluded that in previously untreated patients tandem autologous transplants not only failed to improve overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) but increased the treatment-related mortality (TRM) as well.
There are several issues with the analysis. Only six studies were included, two of which were presented only in abstract form in 2005 and 2007. These