Spanish researchers recently developed a new model based on a technique called multiparameter flow cytometry that can identify newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients with disease profiles similar to those of patients with the myeloma precursor disease monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance.

The set of myeloma patients identified as having disease similar to monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) had better disease status at diagnosis and better long-term survival than other newly diagnosed myeloma patients, regardless of the depth of their …

This summer, for the first time in the 40 years that we have lived in New York City, my wife and I have arranged to spend weekends in “the country.”

While we knew many people who regularly went with their children to a cottage in the Catskills or the Berkshires, three to four hours away, I always marveled at the weekenders’ organizational skills. How did they compress work and household management into five days? When did they do the laundry …

Side effects are a multiple myeloma survivor’s per­ma­nent companion.  Oh, they may change from month to month and treat­ment to treat­ment, but one way or an­other, you are forced to deal with them.

Doctors always insist you share any negative side effects (there are posi­tive ones?) with them or their nurse im­me­di­ately.  And early on, your on­col­o­gist may be quick to switch you from one therapy to another in order to avoid serious, de­bil­i­tat­ing side effects like severe skin rashes, …

Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently pub­lished what they describe as a "curative blueprint" for myeloma.

The "blueprint" outlines key issues the researchers believe need to be ad­dressed if medical science is to achieve a cure for myeloma.

A crucial question that needs to be answered, the researchers argue, is whether treating "early myeloma" is more advantageous than waiting until the disease has progressed to the symptomatic, or active, stage.

The NIH researchers define "early myeloma" …

I got to thinking recently about pets and their impact on people’s lives.

What brought this on is I was reading about how people with pets tend to live longer.

That, along with something else that I’ll get to shortly, started this whole line of thinking about pets.

A Google search revealed that the conventional wisdom about having pets is that people who have them are happier and healthier.

While dogs are often considered at the top of the heap …

The International Myeloma Working Group, a group of leading myeloma special­ists, recently published its recommendations for the treatment of bone disease in multiple myeloma patients.

The researchers recommend that all myeloma patients receiving their first anti-myeloma therapy should also receive treatment with bis­phos­pho­nates, regard­less of whether the patient shows evidence of bone disease on x-rays. They also note that a minimally invasive procedure known as kypho­plasty, as well as low-dose radiation therapy, may be used to reduce severe pain or …

Ever since I became an official cancer patient seven years ago, I’ve had a question I’ve wanted to ask other cancer patients, but I’ve been too scared.

Here goes:

Am I the only one who can’t stand the song “Live Like You Were Dying”?

If you’ve never heard this song, it’s a country song about a man in his 40s who is diagnosed with a terrible disease. The song is not specific about what the disease is, telling us only …