Results of a recent retro­spec­tive­ study show that radiation ther­apy shortly before, or shortly after, the start of drug-based treat­ment in newly diag­nosed multiple myeloma patients is asso­ci­ated with lower over­all survival.

The results are based on in­for­ma­tion for 78,095 multiple myeloma patients from the United States whose data were reported to the National Cancer Data Base be­tween 2004 and 2015.

For their retro­spec­tive­ analysis, the authors of the new study divided the 78,095 patients in their sample into two …

One of the lessons I have learned over time is that models are really valuable for making sense of things in life.

Now, the sort of models I have in mind aren’t the kind you build with plastic pieces and glue, or the kind you see in fashion shows.

The models I’m talking about are simplified versions of the real world, with the simplifications specifically designed to highlight the most im­por­tant features of whatever it is that’s being modeled.

Given …

The poten­tial new multiple myeloma ther­apy ECT-001 has been designated a Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy (RMAT) by the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA).

The RMAT desig­na­tion is very similar in sig­nif­i­cance to the better known Break­through Therapy desig­na­tion, which also is granted by the FDA. Both the RMAT and Break­through Therapy desig­na­tions are in­tended to shorten the time it takes im­por­tant new ther­a­pies to gain FDA mar­ket­ing approval.

The key dif­fer­ence be­tween the two desig­na­tions is that the RMAT …

Neuropathy has been a feature of my myeloma “experiences” for many years. Even long before I was diag­nosed, I had neu­rop­athy. It mostly affected my hands and feet, but it could affect other areas of my body as well.

It drove me crazy, and from time to time I tried to find out what was causing it. I had no success at all in my quest. I even once went as far as insisting that I see a neurologist. He …

“What are you going to do next?”

It’s rare that a slogan printed on a hat makes me pause, but reading this quote in a gift shop at Disneyland made me think.

My wife and I joined our oldest son and our three adorable grand­children for three days at the "happiest place on earth," and it was amazing. Seeing this magical world again through the eyes of our grand­children was heart-warming beyond description. As a multiple myeloma patient four years …

The U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion (FDA) has given the go-ahead for what is likely to be the first clin­i­cal trial of an allo­geneic chi­meric an­ti­gen re­cep­tor (CAR) T-cell ther­apy for mul­ti­ple myeloma.

The poten­tial new myeloma CAR T-cell ther­apy, known as UCARTCS1, is being devel­oped by the French bio­pharma­ceu­tical com­pany Cellectis. The com­pany an­nounced earlier this week that the FDA approved its Investi­ga­tional New Drug (IND) appli­ca­tion for UCARTCS1 in late Jan­u­ary.

The IND ap­prov­al means Cellectis can move …

With my initial diag­nosis of multiple myeloma 14 years in the past, I am an outlier under any definition of the word. And the farther out I am from that initial diag­nosis, the more I baffle my general oncologist, who has been with me since the start, and my myeloma specialist who I see every quarter.

There are many factors that make for this baffling situation.

First, I am 14 years post diag­nosis, a chronological benchmark most myeloma patients …