Last week I wrote about how taking nutritional supplements is like walking through a mine field for multiple myeloma patients.  So this week, I’ll describe my nutritional supplement plan.

First, let me describe the prescription medications that I take:

Revlimid (lenalidomide) is my monthly chemotherapy drug.

Warfarin (Coumadin) is a generic blood thinner. I use it to prevent blood clots that may be caused by Revlimid.

Oxycodone and Tylenol help my bone pain.

Gabapentin (Neurontin) helps my peripheral neuropathy …

A recent study showed that Velcade maintenance therapy modestly increased and deepened responses in elderly, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients after Velcade-based induction therapy. Maintenance therapy also caused small increases in the frequency of side effects.

Dr. Ruben Niesvizky of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York presented the study results at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando at the beginning of the month.

Prior to the recent development of novel therapeutic agents, the treatment for …

One of the things I think I know is that multiple myeloma is often harder on caregivers than it is on the person with the disease.

To some, that may seem counter-intuitive. You’d probably consider that the person with the disease is the one confronting the harder road to travel on, but I believe such a perspective ignores the turmoil, the emotional roller-coaster. and the uncertainty that caregivers face.

I don’t mean to diminish the impact of what becomes an …

Carfilzomib is well tolerated and highly active in both newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients as well as re­lapsed and treat­ment-resistant patients, according to the results of two recent clinical trials that were presented at the American Society of Hematology 2010 annual meeting in Orlando earlier this month.

These results further underscore car­filz­o­mib’s activity in multiple myeloma.  Several studies with promising results were also reported in poster sessions during the annual meeting (see related Beacon news).

Like Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib), …

Patients under age 65 who undergo autologous stem cell transplantation early have significantly higher survival rates than patients who receive continued treatment with Revlimid and dexamethasone, according to a retrospective analysis of a recent clinical trial.

However, Dr. David Siegel, from the Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey and lead investigator of the study, pointed out that these results need to be interpreted cautiously, because the patients were not randomly selected to receive either an early or late stem …

We all realize good nutrition is important. But like everyone else, multiple myeloma patients are often too busy to eat well all of the time.

And even if we do eat well, nutritional science teaches us there are advantages to additional supplementation.

No problem, right? Head off to the health food store and begin loading-up?

How about extract from exotic berries from the Amazon, touted to contain super concentrated anti-oxidants?

Or how about supplements designed to lesson …

The re­­sults of three on­go­ing clin­i­cal trials sug­gest that elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with either Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) or Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) plus low-dose dexamethasone (Decadron) is ef­fec­tive and well-tolerated in patients who have re­lapsed or have treat­ment-resistant mul­ti­ple myeloma.

The findings were pre­sented at the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) annual meeting in Orlando last week.

Elotuzumab is a new drug being devel­oped by Facet Biotech and Bristol-Myers Squibb as a po­ten­tial treat­ment for …