My wife, Pattie, is an excellent caregiver.  A three-time cancer survivor herself, Pattie knows what it feels like to battle cancer.  That experience helps her understand what I am going through.

We were recently forced to face the reality of my first relapse.  After four years of Revlimid helping keep my multiple myeloma at bay, we learned two months ago that the myeloma is back and active.

Even if I’m not feeling well—or Pattie is tired after work—we always try …

The 13^th International Myeloma Workshop will take place Tuesday, May 3, through Friday, May 6, in Paris.  During the four-day meeting, multiple myeloma specialists from all over the world will discuss the current understanding of the biology and treatment of myeloma.

Additionally, much awaited data about the safety and effectiveness of Revlimid (lenalidomide) maintenance therapy will be presented at the meeting.

The Myeloma Beacon will be covering the event, so readers can expect many articles during the meeting and …

Back in 1988, Phyllis Susser, one of the founders and the executive director of Herbert G. Birch Community Services (now Birch Family Services), was establishing a home in Brooklyn for abandoned AIDS babies.

Some of us were helping her deal with the overwhelming negativity and ferocious opposition from the neighbors and the surrounding community.

It was at this Brooklyn residence for babies, whose only home to that point had been a hospital, that I met Geraldine Ferraro.

Back in the …

The use of mitoxantrone and melphalan prior to stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma patients results in favorable survival rates and manageable side effects, according to the results of a Phase 2 clinical trial.

Although the results of the study are encouraging and confirm the results of previous trials, Dr. Anne Beaven, from Duke University Medical Center and lead author of the study, noted that the trial was conducted before the introduction of novel agents into routine clinical practice.

“Until …

Each year at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy we hear about dozens of new drugs that are able to annihilate mul­ti­ple myeloma cells in the test tube and in animal models. Unfortunately, at the same meeting, we also sit through pre­sen­ta­tions and walk by posters of drugs that looked hot in the laboratory but then fail to work when given to real patients with myeloma.

This is not new. It has been the story with myeloma …

By the time I learned I had multiple myeloma, I was really sick.  Bedridden from a fractured vertebra and high on narcotics, everything seemed surreal—like I was in a fog.

Sure, I searched around a bit online for information.  But there weren’t as many good sources of info four years ago as there are now.

But even with newer sources of information, there are a number of barriers that slow patients from getting up-to-speed and learning as much as they …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced last week that it is investigating the safety of the multiple myeloma drugs Revlimid and thalidomide.  The Beacon covered this development in an earlier article.  More details are provided here about why the FDA is conducting the investigation and the possible outcomes of that investigation.  These questions and answers have been developed in consultation with the FDA.

Why is the FDA investigating the safety of Revlimid and thalidomide?

In December, intermediate …