ASCO Updates Recommendations For Use Of Medications To Prevent Blood Clots In Myeloma Patients – Experts from the American Society of Clinical On­col­ogy (ASCO) recently updated their clinical practice guidelines on the pre­ven­tion and treatment of blood clots in cancer patients. The guidelines recommend that multiple myeloma patients who are receiving Revlimid (lenalido­mide) or thalidomide (Thalomid) with chemotherapy or dexamethasone (Decadron) should receive medication to prevent blood clots.  Specifically, those who are at low risk of developing …

Findings from a recent Phase 2 clinical study of a multiple myeloma vaccine indicate that the vaccine deepens responses following autologous stem cell transplantation.

Almost half of the patients in the trial achieved a complete response and almost another third achieved a very good partial response after vaccination.

The investigators state that these response rates compare favorably to initial therapy with Revlimid (lenalidomide) or Velcade (bortezomib) followed by stem cell transplantation.

Based on their results, the …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which was held in Chicago, began on Friday and concluded on Tuesday.

Monday was the busiest day at the meeting with regard to myeloma re­search.  It featured a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the morn­ing and a poster session in the afternoon.

This up­date summarizes the myeloma-related stud­ies pre­sented during the afternoon poster session, which was the final myeloma-related session of the meeting. An earlier article covered the findings from the …

Findings from a recent analysis show that autologous (own) stem cell trans­plantation became significantly more common among North Ameri­can multiple myeloma patients between 1994 and 2005.

During that period, the rate of autologous stem cell transplantation across all myeloma patients increased fivefold, driven by a twentyfold increase in the num­ber of transplants carried out in myeloma patients as part of their initial therapy.

The findings also show that short-term overall survival for myeloma patients who received transplants in­creased significantly during …

In a recent review article pub­lished in the journal Clinical Cancer Re­search, two myeloma experts from the Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute, Dr. Nikhil Munshi and Dr. Kenneth Anderson, review the latest strategies in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma.

In their article, the experts discuss newer ther­a­pies that appear to be promising in clin­i­cal and pre­clin­i­cal stud­ies.

According to the physicians, com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies that spe­cif­i­cally target a patient’s ge­netic form of the dis­ease will be re­quired for long-term dis­ease con­trol and ultimately …

A subanalysis of recent clinical trial results shows good response rates for single-agent Kyprolis in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients with high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

Specifically, the investigators found that the response rates for patients with high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties were similar to those for patients without high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

However, the researchers also found that response duration and over­all survival remained significantly lower in patients with high-risk chromo­som­al ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

Nevertheless, the researchers describe the results as encouraging, and they suggest that …

Results from a recent European Phase 3 clinical trial indicate that a few months of treatment with Velcade may improve the outcomes of multiple myeloma patients who recently underwent a stem cell transplant.

Specifically, patients who received Velcade (bortezomib) following transplantation, which is known as “consolidation therapy,” had a longer median progression-free survival than those who did not receive additional therapy after transplantation.  Their response to transplantation was also more likely to improve with Velcade consolidation therapy.

However, …