A recent British analysis of data from a major clinical trial found that thalidomide maintenance therapy did not have a uniformly positive impact on overall survival in multiple myeloma patients.

In fact, overall survival for patients in the trial who received thalidomide maintenance was slightly lower than overall survival for patients who did not receive maintenance therapy.  The difference, however, was not statistically significant.

In contrast, progression free survival was significantly longer for patients who received thalidomide maintenance compared to …

In just a few short weeks, millions of folks across the U.S. will travel over-the-river-and-through-the-woods to gather with family and friends during one of the nation’s most beloved holidays - Thanksgiving!

My family is no different. We love Thanksgiving! I can see it now:

On Thanksgiving morning, through the magic of television, we will be whisked away to The Big Apple to clap along with rousing marching bands, to ‘oooo’ over the helium-filled superhero balloons, and to ‘ahhh’ over the …

Results of a recent analysis suggest that newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients receiving Revlimid or thalidomide as initial therapy have similar prognoses regardless of whether they receive an early stem cell transplant or delay the transplant and continue their initial treatment.

Specifically, the authors of the analysis found that myeloma patients who received a stem cell transplant early in the course of their disease had a comparable survival rate and time to disease progression as patients who continued Revlimid …

The results of a recent British analysis found that multiple myeloma patients with a deletion in chromosome 17 who received thalidomide induction therapy had improved response rates compared to those who did not receive thalidomide. 

These improved response rates also were accompanied by improve­ments in patients' overall survival, but the improvements were not statistically significant.

Moreover, patients with a deletion in chromosome 17 who received thalidomide as part of a maintenance regimen had shorter overall survival than those who did not receive …

I started my Velcade (bortezomib) / dexamethasone (Decadron) infusions again last week after recovering for four months from a stem cell transplant that I received this summer.

The infusion process got me thinking about ways I have learned to cope with getting “stuck” for IVs over the years.

Sure, I’m a lot tougher now than when I started treatment for my multiple myeloma almost five years ago.

Even so, it isn’t any fun sitting still while a nurse …

I know science is for scientists.  And medicine is for medical professionals.

But to be of benefit in our health care system, science and medicine must reach the end consumer -- people.  Regular, average, ordinary, everyday people.   People with feelings who are sometimes struggling to cope with a very real threat to their ability to live a quality life, or to live at all.

For those people, the words of science and medicine matter.  They help describe circumstances and set …

Halloween is in the air. Pumpkins, black cats, ghosts -- a witch in black stirs her cauldron of steaming brew. I am reminded that there is no magic potion for multiple myeloma. “It is easy to get a thousand prescriptions, but hard to get one single remedy,” says the Chinese proverb. Still, each of us with multiple myeloma hopes to stumble upon the perfect alchemy for survival.

There is no sparkling elixir to pour from a bottle -- living is …