Within a period from March 1983 to November 1988, 93 newly diagnosed patients with multiple myeloma, 47 men and 46 women aged from 41 to 80 years were treated with protocol VBCMP-M2. A response was achieved in 30 (60%) patients in stage II and 22 (51%) in stage III, the overall response rate being 56%. 41% of all patients entered plateau phase, more frequently in stage II (46%) than in stage III (37%) patients. The median survival of all patients was 35 months. Comparing these groups of patients with other series from the literature, we were not able to demonstrate any advantage of this multidrug combination over other combinations or even melphalan and prednisone alone.