Over the last year or two, I have seen an increasing number of patients with multiple myeloma who are deeply worried that they have “failed” treatment because they are not in “complete response” (CR).  This phe­nom­e­non is gaining further steam with recent interest in “minimal re­sid­ual disease” (MRD).

In fact, with numerous educational programs, daily emails, and ubiqui­tous lectures touting a new regimen with even higher complete re­sponse rates, I am now almost as worried as them. Of course, the …

The European Commission (EC) has approved pomalidomide for the treatment of certain patients with multiple myeloma.  The European brand name for the drug is expected to be "Imnovid," although final regu­la­tory approval of that name is still pending.

In the United States, pomalidomide is marketed under the brand name Poma­lyst.  It was approved earlier this year by the U.S. Food and Drug Ad­min­is­tra­tion (FDA) as a new treatment for myeloma.

The EC approved Imnovid …

My husband and I recently took a road trip to Golden and Revelstoke in British Columbia. We hiked and went sightseeing among the mountains and lakes.  It was truly beautiful there.

While driving down one country road, we passed a tractor that was mowing the tall grasses along the shoulder. Seeing that triggered my memory, since mowing is ‘low tech’ compared to other ways of clearing vegetation that I have noticed in the past. When I was young, I saw …

German researchers recently developed a new system that calculates the risk level of multiple myeloma patients based on patient’s overall health status and other diseases a patient has in addition to myeloma.

Their system, called the Freiburg Comorbidity Index, calculates a patient’s risk level by determining the presence of known risk factors, such as poor overall health and kidney or lung disease.

The researchers found that this index can be used independently to predict progression-free survival and overall survival in …

In last month's column, Dreams and Destinations, I recounted the wacky drive I took down to Little Rock, Arkansas, for my first doctor’s checkup after having been off of all multiple myeloma drugs for six months.

Because of a series of inconvenient events, the normal four-hour drive stretched to almost eight hours.

My progress was impeded by a blown tire at 60 mph, two sobriety roadblocks, a couple of small town speed traps, a frustrating crawl behind a wagon …

Results from a Spanish Phase 3 study published late Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine indicate that treatment of high-risk smol­dering multiple myeloma with Revlimid plus dexamethasone delays pro­gression to symptomatic multiple myeloma and extends overall sur­viv­al.

In addition, the Revlimid (lenalidomide)-dexamethasone (Decadron) regi­men had an acceptable safety profile, according to the investigators.

Despite these findings – which would tend to support active treatment of high-risk smoldering myeloma – myeloma experts believe it is too early to …

In last month’s column, I wrote about how much my perspective on myeloma therapy has changed over the past six years since my diagnosis.  In a nutshell, I’m more willing to try new things and endure troubling side effects now than I was back when I was still a “rookie.”

My attitude about stem cell transplants is a perfect example of this.  I look at stem cell transplants differently now – both allogeneic transplants (using donor stem cells) and …