We are pleased today to announce an important step forward for The Myeloma Beacon.

The Beacon is now non-profit.

More importantly, The Beacon is a new and different kind of myeloma-related non-profit.

To ensure that our work on behalf of the myeloma community is unhindered by any conflicts of interest, The Beacon will not now, nor will it in the future, accept funding from pharma­ceu­tical com­pa­nies or any other organizations that may have a significant financial interest in the Beacon’s …

Lately, our life reminds me of one of those 80s movies where some fraternity pledge is getting spanked with a wooden paddle, and the wincing recruit says, “Thank you, sir! May I have another?”

My husband, Daniel, has just finished his second cycle of Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib), Revlimid (lena­lido­mide), and dexa­meth­a­sone (Decadron) treat­ment for his multiple myeloma. He seems to be tolerating the regi­men reason­ably well, given the side effects that he could be having. However, we already have seen our …

Janssen Biotech, the Johnson & Johnson sub­sid­i­ary that mar­kets the myeloma ther­apy Darzalex globally, has decided to halt two clin­i­cal trials testing the drug in com­bi­na­tion with other cancer treat­ments.

One of the Darzalex trials involves patients with pre­vi­ously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, while the other trial involves patients with re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Genmab, the Danish com­pany that initially devel­oped Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) before licensing it to Janssen, announced news of the trial can­cel­la­tions this past Saturday. …

The 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place this year from June 1 to June 5 in Chicago.

Approximately 40,000 physicians, nurses, and industry rep­resentatives from all over the world are expected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss current research in cancer treat­ment and care.

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions about all types of cancer, in­clud­ing many pre­­sen­ta­tions focused specifically on multiple myeloma. In fact, more than 90 myeloma-related studies …

“You look great,” isn’t nor­mally a compli­­ment or greet­ing that causes the re­ceiver pause. For me, how­ever, it creates mixed feelings, and those mixed feelings can change depending on the person and the situation when the greet­ing is offered.

I realize how I react to what is said to me is my issue, not the speaker's. Often, they really mean to say that I look "normal" and un­harmed by my cancer and treat­ments. They are wit­nessing no outwardly changes in …

Light chain mono­clonal gam­mop­athy of undetermined sig­nif­i­cance (MGUS) has a very low probability of progressing to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, accord­ing to the results of a new study by researchers in Germany.

The German researchers found that, with a median follow-up time of 11.5 years, none of the 75 people in their study who had light chain MGUS saw their MGUS progress to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, or a related disease.

In fact, in more than half of the 31 cases …

We had a really long, cold winter with lots of snow and ice this year. Our Chinook winds, which bring warm air from over the mountains to the west, did not blow very often. When finally at the end of April our streets were clear of snow and a few spring bulbs came up in the garden, I was glad to get back to spending more time outdoors.

When I walk outdoors, I often listen to Ian Tyson’s song ‘Springtime …