A long time ago, we knew that we wanted my husband, Daniel, to be treated at a major cancer research hospital for his multiple myeloma.  We felt strongly enough about this that we sold our house, packed up our things, and relocated to Houston, Texas so that we could be close to such a center.

If we’ve ever needed a reason to believe that we made a good choice, learn­ing that Daniel’s myeloma was much more difficult to treat than …

I was recently reminded of an important lesson about statistics that applies to multiple myeloma. Interestingly enough, I was reminded of the lesson sitting in a stadium full of soccer fans, of all places. While a reg­u­la­tion soccer match is 90 minutes long, the official time is kept by the referee and he or she can add a few minutes to every match to compensate for the time play was stopped for injuries or other reasons. In the 93^rd minute …

In a retrospective study of over 350 multiple myeloma patients who had a com­plete response to their initial line of ther­apy, researchers in the United States have found that a longer duration of response is asso­ci­ated with sub­stan­tially longer over­all survival.

In addi­tion, the study authors found that patients who started second-line treat­ment due to a biochemical relapse had longer over­all survival than those who started second-line treat­ment due to a symp­tomatic relapse.

A symp­tomatic relapse is one in which …

I recently attended a talk about the history of treat­ments and sup­port­ive ther­a­pies for multiple myeloma in Canada. Being now in the tenth year since my myeloma diag­nosis in 2009, I find this to be an interesting subject. It makes me realize how much things have changed here in Canada, and elsewhere, with regard to the treat­ment of multiple myeloma.

My induction ther­apy, or initial treat­ment after diag­nosis, consisted of Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and dexa­meth­a­sone (Decadron).

Velcade was approved and started …

I have a red-headed friend with lym­phoma. She seems to be an outlier on the spectrum of “average responses” to treat­ment. Even common front­line drugs have caused her unexpected side effects. When it comes to her treat­ment, she teases her specialists that she’s a “medical uni­corn,” some­thing never before seen. I’m beginning to think she’s not the only one.

I am writing this column on Day +11, or the eleventh day after my husband Daniel’s au­tol­o­gous stem cell trans­plant. The road …

Earlier this month, The Myeloma Beacon published a news article sum­marizing results of a clin­i­cal trial testing the com­bi­na­tion of nelfinavir, Velcade, and dexa­meth­a­sone as a treat­ment for re­lapsed multiple myeloma.

Nelfinavir (Viracept) is an orally admin­istered drug that was approved in the 1990s for the treat­ment of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syn­drome (AIDS). Nel­fin­avir has not pre­vi­ously been used for the treat­ment of …

Results of a recent retrospective analysis indicate that stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion may be underutilized in multiple myeloma patients 80 years of age or older.

Researchers from the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston found that only 0.5 per­cent (9 patients) of the 1,740 multiple myeloma patients who received an au­tol­o­gous (own) stem cell trans­plant between January 2007 and June 2018 at their institution were 80 years or older at the time of their first trans­plant.

Yet the trans­plant out­comes …