I am writing this early on Sunday morning as I am preparing to leave Columbia, Missouri, following the University of Georgia's win over Mizzou late last night.  (Apologies to all Mizzou fans.)

Georgia struggled through much of the game but came alive in the fourth quarter. For this, I am thankful because during my tenure at UGA, we've had some journeys home where the mood was not joyful.

Of course, football is nowhere near as serious as the battle against …

Results from a recent Italian study confirm that smoldering myeloma patients with at least 60 percent of the cells in their bone marrow being plasma cells are 5.6 times more likely than others to progress to symptomatic multiple myeloma.

In addition, the findings indicate that bone marrow aspiration may be a better tool than bone marrow biopsy for predicting rapid progression from smoldering to active myeloma.

The study investigators suggest that smoldering myeloma patients with at least 60 percent plasma …

There was a full moon Labor Day weekend.  The sky was clear all three nights here in Florida.  The moon’s light was filtered as it passed through the humid late summer’s air, forming a bright halo.

Walking beneath the full moon reminded me of the trying months following my multiple myeloma diagnosis.

Believe it or not, the moon played an important role in my initial recovery five years ago in Wisconsin.  Even though I could barely walk, I will never …

Results from a Spanish Phase 3 clinical trial suggest that initial treatment with a combination of Velcade, thalidomide, and dexamethasone may lead to better responses before and after stem cell transplantation, as compared to treatment with thalidomide and dexamethasone alone. In addition, treatment with the three-drug combination increases progression-free survival time.

The study investigators concluded that their findings support the use of a combination of Velcade (bortezomib), thalidomide (Thalomid), and dexamethasone (Decadron), often referred to as VTD, …

Four years of ongoing chemotherapy may have made my memory a bit fuzzy at this point, but I don’t exactly recall having scribbled the following onto my bucket-list:

"Get multiple myeloma, say goodbye to life as you know it."

I certainly have no desire to prove my mettle by taking on such a menacing foe. I really do have better things I’d rather do with my life.

I’d much more prefer to run the bases at Yankee Stadium, or hike …

One of The Myeloma Beacon's most popular news stories of 2011 reported on an important new devel­op­ment in the use of gene ther­apy to treat blood cancers.

In particular, the article described promising results from a small study using gene ther­apy to treat patients who have chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), and it looked at how those results might translate into new ther­a­pies for multiple myeloma (see related Beacon news).

Since the results of the CLL study were …

In a recent multi-center study, Spanish researchers identified several immune system characteristics of multiple myeloma patients who have achieved long-term disease control.

They found that patients who achieve long-term disease control have a distinct immune system profile that differs from patients with active disease and from that of healthy adults.

This distinct profile, the researchers argue, likely plays a role in the patients achieving long-term control of their myeloma, and thus deserves further investigation.

The majority of multiple myeloma patients …