Spanish researchers recently published long-term follow-up results confirming that a complete response following stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma patients increases overall and progression-free survival compared to a very good or partial response.

Treatment with high-dose chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplantation is a standard therapeutic approach for younger, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients. There has been some debate among researchers, however, as to whether the quality of response following transplantation can predict patient outcome.

In 2000, the same group …

There are moments in life impossible to predict and, therefore, difficult to plan for.  One of those moments happened to me in the late afternoon about a month ago on April 27.  Learning that my sister Deana, four years my junior, had an advanced case of multiple myeloma was shocking to say the least.  It was one of the most sobering moments of my life.  Despite two days of hoping doctors would be wrong, the tests confirmed it.  So now, …

Results of a recent German study show that the chromosomal abnormalities del(17p13) and +1q21 may reduce overall survival in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients receiving Revlimid-dexamethasone compared to patients without these abnormalities.

The results also indicate that patients with t(14;16) receiving Revlimid-dexamethasone have a shorter time to disease progression than patients without this abnormality. In addition, patients with del(13q14) in combination with certain other chromosomal abnormalities may have decreased response rates and a shorter time to disease progression.

The study authors, …

Many multiple myeloma patients and caregivers live in a new, Internet-centered world.

As recently as five or six years ago, someone with multiple myeloma would have heard about a new anti-myeloma therapy from their oncologist—probably when the new drug was being prescribed for the first time—or possibly while deciding whether or not to participate in a clinical trial.

Man, have times changed!  Not only are there as many as 90 different myeloma-related drugs or drug combinations being researched now, but …

The 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 3, through Tuesday, June 7, in Chicago.

More than 30,000 clin­i­cal spe­cialists from all over the world are ex­pected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss the cur­rent re­search in cancer treat­ment and care. This year’s meeting will primarily focus on the theme of “Patients, Pathways, Progress.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website …

Who are you when you stop doing? Leaving the shelter of a healthy physical body for one threatened by multiple myeloma led me to stop doing. Then I found myself doing different things—medical appointments, hospitals, and treatments. Stepping back from “doing” into “being” helped me heal.

Quiet and private surroundings seemed to compensate for the uncertainty of my disease. There are no problems or illness in the stillness of the present moment of now—until movement of body and mind allows …

A group of leading myeloma specialists, known as the International Myeloma Working Group, recently collaborated to develop guidelines for the proper management of anemia with erythropoietin therapy in multiple myeloma patients. The group advised erythropoietin therapy for anemic myeloma patients receiving chemotherapy in order to improve quality of life and to reduce the need for red blood cell transfusions. They further recommended the addition of iron to improve the efficiency of erythropoietin therapy.

Dr. Heinz Ludwig of the Wilhelminen Hospital …