Results of a recent Phase 2 clin­i­cal trial in Denmark raise questions about the future role of the antibiotic clarithro­mycin (Biaxin) in the treat­ment of multiple myeloma.

Previous research has suggested that adding clarithromycin to standard myeloma treat­ment regi­mens could im­prove treat­ment efficacy without a sig­nif­i­cant increase in side effects.

As a result, clarithromycin-containing regi­mens such as “BiRd” (Biaxin, Revlimid, and dexa­meth­a­sone) have been employed by some myeloma specialists to treat both newly diag­nosed and re­lapsed patients.

The recent Danish …

In the midst of the annual late May / early June medical conference season, with the many presentations of results from large-scale clin­i­cal trials, it is perhaps refreshing to learn that small-scale research has uncovered a pre­vi­ously unexplored poten­tial myeloma ther­apy.

In particular, physicians in New Zealand have found signs that roxi­thro­mycin, an antibiotic first used more than 30 years ago, may have anti-myeloma activity. The physicians shared their finding in a case report pub­lished last month.

In their report, …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting began last Friday and will run through tomorrow.

Multiple myeloma-related pre­sen­ta­tions have been taking place every day of the meeting. The main myeloma-related oral pre­sen­ta­tion session of the meeting, how­ever, took place on Friday. Research summarized during oral pre­sen­ta­tion sessions usually is par­tic­u­larly im­por­tant, either because the subject itself is im­por­tant, or because the results are based on sub­stan­tial amounts of evi­dence (for example, a sizable clin­i­cal trial).

Given the …

The 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place this year from June 1 to June 5 in Chicago.

Approximately 40,000 physicians, nurses, and industry rep­resentatives from all over the world are expected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss current research in cancer treat­ment and care.

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions about all types of cancer, in­clud­ing many pre­­sen­ta­tions focused specifically on multiple myeloma. In fact, more than 90 myeloma-related studies …

New clin­i­cal trial results for selinexor, a poten­tial new myeloma treat­ment, were released last week by Karyopharm Therapeutics, the U.S. com­pany devel­op­ing the drug.

The new results are “top line” findings, so they are very limited in scope. They are con­sis­tent, how­ever, with the favorable results pre­vi­ously seen in trials of selinexor com­bined with dexa­meth­a­sone in heavily pre­treated multiple myeloma patients. Taken together, the results suggest the selinexor-based two-drug com­bi­na­tion has noteworthy anti-myeloma activity.

Karyopharm (NASDAQ:KPTI) accompanied last week’s release …

The results of a small, single-arm study conducted at the Ohio State University indicate that adminis­tering Darzalex using a time-saving 90-minute in­fusion protocol can be safe.

No patients in the study ex­peri­enced severe in­fusion-related reac­tions, and there was only one mild reac­tion in a patient who had no further reac­tions during sub­se­quent in­fusions at the 90-minute rate.

The faster Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) in­fusion rate tested in the study is two hours shorter than the standard 3.5 hour rate. Patients in …

Results of a retro­spec­tive­ study conducted at the Mayo Clinic indicate that multiple myeloma patients who respond more gradually to their initial treat­ment may have better over­all survival.

Specifically, the authors of the new study find that newly diag­nosed patients who required more than 120 days to achieve their best response to initial treat­ment had better pro­gres­sion-free and over­all survival than patients who achieved their best response in 120 days or less.

The five-year survival rate was 77 per­cent for …