Today is the third day of this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).  Here at The Beacon, we refer to today as “Myeloma Monday” because the day is packed full of important myeloma presentations, more than any other day of the meeting, from the early morning until the close of the day.

This ASH update describes all of the myeloma-related sessions that have and will take place today.  Additional updates to be published later today and tomorrow …

This year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) began yesterday morning in New Orleans.

Myeloma-related presentations were made during several sessions yesterday.

Two sessions were designed to better educate physicians about multiple myeloma and how to treat the disease.

The key myeloma-related research presented yesterday was made public during a poster session in the evening about the biology of myeloma as well as pre­clin­i­cal and clin­i­cal studies testing new and existing treat­ments for myeloma.

During the session, research …

As The Beacon continues its ‘ASH Preview’ series about myeloma re­search that will be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in early December, this article focuses on novel im­muno­therapy approaches that are being studied in clinical trials.

Abstracts for the ASH presentations are now available, although many contain pre­lim­i­nary information that will be updated at the meet­ing.

The Beacon’s ASH preview articles are intended to highlight the meet­ing’s most interesting myeloma-related studies. …

At this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting, which will be held in early De­cem­ber, more than 100 oral pre­sen­ta­tions and about 400 poster pre­sen­ta­tions will summarize re­search focused on multiple myeloma.

Abstracts for these pre­sen­ta­tions are now avail­able.

During the next several weeks, The Beacon will pub­lish a series of arti­cles pre­viewing the myeloma-related studies from the ASH meeting that are of par­tic­u­lar interest.

Each of the articles will cover abstracts related to a specific topic, such as …

Researchers from the U.S. National Cancer Institute recently initiated a Phase 1 clin­i­cal trial that will test whether dinaciclib in combination with Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone is safe and effective as an anti-myeloma therapy.

The clinical trial is taking place at a several locations across the United States, and is open to multiple myeloma patients who have relapsed after at least one previous myeloma treatment regimen.

Dinaciclib (SCH727965) is currently being developed by Merck (NYSE: MRK). It is a small molecule that inhibits …

Findings from a recent retrospective study conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic show that overall survival for multiple myeloma patients treated at that cancer center has improved significantly between 2001 and 2010.

Patients diag­nosed between 2001 and 2005 had a median overall survival of 4.6 years, while those diag­nosed more recently – be­tween 2006 and 2010 – had an improved median overall survival of 6.1 years, or almost one-third higher.

In addition, the share of patients dying within a year of …

Results from a recent study indicate that many myeloma patients are like­ly to suffer im­paired cog­ni­tive func­tion after their initial multiple mye­lo­ma therapy, and stem cell trans­planta­tion often causes further im­pairment.

Nearly half of the patients in the study had cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment, often referred to as ‘chemo brain,’ after receiving initial anti-myeloma therapy.  Half of the patients experienced further im­pair­ment of cog­ni­tive function at one month and again at three months following autologous (own) stem cell trans­planta­tion.

The study authors …