“Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle that one does not dissolve in one’s bath like a lump of sugar,” said Pablo Picasso. However, the bath does melt aches and pains that multiple myeloma patients often encounter.

According to one study, about 60 per­cent of myeloma patients endure bone disease in the forms of vertebral compression fractures and osteolytic lesions. Myeloma cells push aside normal bone-forming cells, causing weakened bones that fracture easily. Bone involvement is a perma­nent feature …

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) recently announced several additions and changes to its guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of multiple myeloma at the NCCN 16^th Annual Conference on March 11.

The NCCN guidelines are used by physicians when deciding among treatment options for their patients and also by Medicare to determine whether to pay for treatments if the drugs are used differently than their FDA-approved use.

Several treatment options for multiple myeloma were added to the latest edition …

This article is the fifth in a five-part series about emerging vaccines for multiple myeloma. It tells the story of a patient who participated in a myeloma vaccine clinical trial.  The first article in the series provides an introduction to the concept of a myeloma vaccine, the second article provides an introduction to the various types of myeloma vaccines that are currently under development, the third article describes vaccines for which clinical trials have been completed, and …

As you may already know, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma four years ago, and part of my early therapy was to radiate several large lesions located up and down my spine.

I was initially treated at a state-of-the-art facility outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota. Treatment consisted of a twenty minute session under a huge, rotating robot-like machine, for ten days.

Twice the machine broke down before or during my treatment. Once I was forced to impatiently lie on the …

Many new and promising research developments were made in the field of multiple myeloma during 2010. Over the course of the year, The Myeloma Beacon published more than 100 articles on important myeloma-related studies.

To highlight the most important of these studies from 2010, The Myeloma Beacon surveyed leading physicians and researchers in the field.  They were asked to name the three peer-reviewed journal articles published in 2010 and the three conference presentations from 2010 that have the most …

I like to communicate with my doctors by email.

Having spent a great deal of my career talking on the phone, the embracing of email in the work world has had a profound change in the way I do business.   Once upon a time, I might spend as much as two-thirds of the day on the phone.  Today, there’s an awful lot of time between phone calls.  Sometimes a whole workday goes by.

Anyway, it’s not always easy – sometimes …

This article is the fourth in a five-part series about emerging vaccines for multiple myeloma. It focuses on ongoing myeloma vaccine research.  The first article in the series provides an introduction to the of a myeloma vaccine, the second article provides an introduction to the various types of myeloma vaccines that are currently under development, and the third article describes vaccines for which clinical trials have been completed.  The fifth article tells the story of a …