Julie Karceski's Archive

Julie Karceski is a graduate student in journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia. She has a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Iowa, where she also did research in microbiology. She enjoys writing about science, health, and the environment, and has been a reporter at the Columbia Missourian and an intern at E/The Environmental Magazine. Currently, she's also working on her thesis, which is about cultural stereotypes of women scientists. She loves Hawkeye football, running, and newspapers.

Julie Karceski has written 13 article(s) .

[ by | Jan 4, 2010 4:57 pm | Comments Off ]
Elotuzumab In Combination With Revlimid And Dexamethasone Shows Encouraging Results In Multiple Myeloma (ASH 2009)

Preliminary re­­sults from an on­go­ing Phase 1/2 clin­i­cal trial sug­gest that elotuzumab, in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and low-dose dexamethasone (Decadron), may have po­ten­tial in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma. The findings were pre­sented at the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy’s 51st Annual Meeting at the beginning of last month.

Dr. Ravi Vij from the Uni­ver­sity of Washington in St. Louis, co-author of the study, remarked, “The trial showed very high rates of re­sponse when elotuzumab is given …

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Dec 22, 2009 12:56 pm | Comments Off ]
Zolinza Combination Treatments Offer Benefit For Multiple Myeloma Patients (ASH 2009)

The 2009 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting showcased several presentations on Zolinza (vorinostat), a histone deacetylase inhibitor developed by Merck Pharmaceuticals that is currently investigated for the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Zolinza alters the way a cancer cell’s DNA creates proteins, which is important in cancer treatment because such a drug can slow down cell proliferation, minimize mutations in DNA and control cell death.

Zolinza With Revlimid And Dexamethasone

Preliminary data from an ongoing Phase 1 study …

Tags: , , , , , , ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Nov 27, 2009 8:43 am | Comments Off ]
New Velcade Combination Therapy Effective For Newly Diagnosed Myeloma Patients (ASH 2009)

A new study suggests that Velcade (bortezomib), in combination with other drugs, is a better treatment method for patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma than the previous standard drugs.

The study, titled “Velcade, Intravenous Cyclophosphamide, and Dexamethasone (VCD) Induction for Previously Untreated Multiple Myeloma (German DSMM XIa Trial),” will be presented on December 6 at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Meeting in New Orleans.

The researchers compared a drug cocktail consisting of Velcade, cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), and

Tags: , , , , , ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Nov 4, 2009 2:58 pm | Comments Off ]
Lawsuit Filed To Overturn Ban On Payment For Bone Marrow Donations

As many multiple myeloma and other blood cancer patients know, it is illegal to pay bone marrow donors. But last week, the Institute for Justice (IJ) filed a lawsuit to overturn this ban. If the IJ is successful, physicians, donors, and especially patients may be significantly affected.

The IJ reports that more than 1,000 Americans die each year waiting for a donor match. “Myeloma patients are among those who need a transplant,” said Jeff Rowes, the IJ’s lead attorney on …

Tags: ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Oct 28, 2009 5:16 pm | Comments Off ]
Thalidomide Improves Outcome Of Double Stem Cell Transplants In Younger Myeloma Patients

A study recently published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests that thalidomide (Thalomid), used in conjunction with double autologous stem cell transplants, leads to better outcome in younger patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma.

Autologous stem cell transplants use stem cells collected from the patient’s own bone marrow rather than from a donor. In a double transplant treatment, two transplants are given to the patient within a six-month period.

The study authors retrospectively analyzed the data of …

Tags: , , ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Oct 20, 2009 2:35 pm | Comments Off ]
Multiple Myeloma Study Finds Complete Response Is Generally Correlated With Survival

In a recent study published in the journal Blood, researchers reviewed pre­vi­ously reported research and found a general correlation between “complete response” to ther­apy and survival for multiple myeloma patients.

Complete response, which is defined as a normal bone marrow evaluation and a negative immuno­fix­a­tion (a test to detect ab­nor­mal anti­bodies in the blood or urine), has been correlated to patient out­come for many blood cancers. However, conventional chemotherapy has rarely produced com­plete responses in myeloma patients.

The sig­nif­i­cance of …

Tags: , , ,
Read the full story »
[ by | Oct 14, 2009 9:29 am | Comments Off ]
New Directory Could Assist In Myeloma Treatment

Researchers at St George’s, University of London have developed a new directory that could lead to quicker and more targeted treatment for multiple myeloma and other cancer patients.

The directory identifies 40,000 genes that can cause cancer and lists the effects on each gene by three drugs used in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

The three drugs included in the directory are thalidomide (Thalomid), Revlimid (lenalidomide), and Actimid (pomalidomide, CC-4047). Both thalidomide and Revlimid are approved for …

Tags: , , , ,
Read the full story »