Skip to main content
An official website of the United States government

Melphalan, Total Marrow Irradiation, and Stem Cell Transplant in Treating Patients with High-Risk Multiple Myeloma

Trial Status: administratively complete

This phase I/II trial studies the side effects and best dose of melphalan and total marrow irradiation and how well they work with stem cell transplant in treating patients with high-risk multiple myeloma. Drugs used in chemotherapy, such as melphalan, work in different ways to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells, by stopping them from dividing, or by stopping them from spreading. Total marrow irradiation is a type of radiation therapy and a form of total body irradiation that may deliver focused radiation to the major marrow sites where cancer cells reside. Giving chemotherapy and total-body irradiation before a peripheral blood stem cell transplant helps kill any cancer cells that are in the body and helps make room in the patient’s bone marrow for new blood-forming cells (stem cells) to grow. After treatment, stem cells are collected from the patient's blood and stored. More chemotherapy is then given to prepare the bone marrow for the stem cell transplant. The stem cells are then returned to the patient to replace the blood-forming cells that were destroyed by the chemotherapy.