In a retrospective study of over 350 multiple myeloma patients who had a com­plete response to their initial line of ther­apy, researchers in the United States have found that a longer duration of response is asso­ci­ated with sub­stan­tially longer over­all survival.

In addi­tion, the study authors found that patients who started second-line treat­ment due to a biochemical relapse had longer over­all survival than those who started second-line treat­ment due to a symp­tomatic relapse.

A symp­tomatic relapse is one in which …

Results of a recent retrospective analysis indicate that stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion may be underutilized in multiple myeloma patients 80 years of age or older.

Researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston found that only 0.5 per­cent (9 patients) of the 1,740 multiple myeloma patients who received an au­tol­o­gous (own) stem cell trans­plant between January 2007 and June 2018 at their institution were 80 years or older at the time of their first trans­plant.

Yet the trans­plant out­comes …

Results of a recent ob­ser­va­tion­al study in­di­cate that a sub­stan­tial majority of recently diag­nosed mul­ti­ple myeloma patients have low testos­terone levels.

Researchers at Ohio State Uni­ver­sity tested testos­terone levels in the blood of over 550 people with a plasma cell disorder. More than 90 per­cent of the study par­tic­i­pants had either mul­ti­ple myeloma, smol­der­ing mul­ti­ple myeloma, MGUS, or a plasmacytoma. Across all the study par­tic­i­pants, 74 per­cent had testos­terone levels that were low given their gender and age.

Testosterone levels …

Researchers from the Mayo Clinic con­firmed in a recent study that close relatives of people with multiple myeloma have a higher risk of devel­op­ing MGUS (mono­clonal gam­mop­athy of un­determined sig­nif­i­cance) than members of the general pop­u­la­tion.

In particular, the researchers found that "first-degree relatives" – parents, siblings, and children – of people with multiple myeloma were 2.4 times more likely to have MGUS than the general pop­u­la­tion.

This finding is in line with results of a pre­vi­ous Mayo Clinic study, …

Results of a small Phase 2 trial conducted in Switzerland indicate that the HIV treat­ment nelfinavir, in com­bi­na­tion with Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone, has promising activity in patients with ad­vanced, Velcade-resistant multiple myeloma.

All 34 patients in the Swiss trial had pre­vi­ously been treated with, and stopped responding to, Velcade. All study par­tic­i­pants also were pre­vi­ously treated with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and had a median of five over­all prior lines of treat­ment.

In this heavily pre­treated patient group, the com­bi­na­tion of nelfinavir, …

Results of a study conducted in Switzerland indicate that selective digestive decontamination, a controversial strategy designed to reduce the risk of in­fec­tions, may be effective in myeloma patients undergoing au­tol­o­gous (own) stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion.

The authors of the new study retro­spec­tive­ly reviewed data for over 200 myeloma patients who underwent an inpatient stem cell trans­plant at two hos­pi­tals in Zurich, Switzerland, be­tween 2009 and 2015. About half the patients underwent selective digestive decontamination (SDD) during their trans­plants, while the other …

Updated re­­sults of a Phase 1 trial testing bb2121 in re­lapsed mul­ti­ple myeloma patients were pre­sented last Friday at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting. bb2121 is a poten­tial new myeloma treat­ment in the chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor (CAR) T-cell class of ther­a­pies.

The re­­sults pre­sented at this year's ASCO meeting con­firm pre­vi­ous findings in­di­cating bb2121 has sub­stan­tial anti-myeloma ac­­tiv­ity.

At some of the higher doses of bb2121 tested during the trial, for example, nearly every patient treated …