New clin­i­cal trial results for selinexor, a poten­tial new myeloma treat­ment, were released last week by Karyopharm Therapeutics, the U.S. com­pany devel­op­ing the drug.

The new results are “top line” findings, so they are very limited in scope. They are con­sis­tent, how­ever, with the favorable results pre­vi­ously seen in trials of selinexor com­bined with dexa­meth­a­sone in heavily pre­treated multiple myeloma patients. Taken together, the results suggest the selinexor-based two-drug com­bi­na­tion has noteworthy anti-myeloma activity.

Karyopharm (NASDAQ:KPTI) accompanied last week’s release …

Having multiple myeloma is quite a big thing. Being diagnosed with the disease certainly is one of the biggest things that has happened to me. It’s a big deal that we sufferers, and our loved ones, live with every day.

For me, multiple myeloma often permeates my thoughts even when I try to drive it away. Sometimes I’m having a chat with friends, and I’m feeling much like everyone else, but then The Big Thing gets in the way. …

The results of a small, single-arm study conducted at the Ohio State University indicate that adminis­tering Darzalex using a time-saving 90-minute in­fusion protocol can be safe.

No patients in the study ex­peri­enced severe in­fusion-related reac­tions, and there was only one mild reac­tion in a patient who had no further reac­tions during sub­se­quent in­fusions at the 90-minute rate.

The faster Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) in­fusion rate tested in the study is two hours shorter than the standard 3.5 hour rate. Patients in …

HIPAA. We, or at least those of us living in the United States, all know the five-letter acronym even if we can’t tell you what the letters stand for. Passed in 1996, the Health Insurance Porta­bility and Account­ability Act has been with us for more than two decades.

And we all know about HIPAA, even if we don’t know it. Any­time any one of us goes to a hospital or medical center for testing or x-rays or surgery, registration staff …

Results of a retro­spec­tive­ study conducted at the Mayo Clinic indicate that multiple myeloma patients who respond more gradually to their initial treat­ment may have better over­all survival.

Specifically, the authors of the new study find that newly diag­nosed patients who required more than 120 days to achieve their best response to initial treat­ment had better pro­gres­sion-free and over­all survival than patients who achieved their best response in 120 days or less.

The five-year survival rate was 77 per­cent for …

Last month, I watched the Juno Awards, the Canadian music awards, on TV. Broadcast from Vancouver, the show featured a live performance by Diana Krall. That alone was enough for me to watch the cermonies, for Krall is an artist I admire, both for her music and for her support of multiple myeloma patients and their families.

The Artist of the Year award was awarded posthumously to Gord Downie of band ‘The Tragically Hip.’ He passed away last year from …

Updated multiple myeloma survival statistics for the United States were made public yesterday. The new data show little change in five-year survival compared to statistics released last year. This short-term plateau in myeloma survival stands in contrast to the sizable increases in survival seen in last year's update and the one in 2016.

The newly released statistics also show little change in how survival varies across myeloma patients based on their age, race, or gender. Age con­tin­ues to have …