Do you have the time to listen to me whine? Sorry, but I need to vent about the challenges of being terminally ill in America today. I am not sure that it is worse than in other countries. In fact, I am sure it is dramatically better than in most developing nations.

I am not a medical expert, only a patient who has also been a small busi­ness owner most of his life. As such, I am required to put …

My wife, Pattie, is an amazing caregiver.  Smart and compassionate, her own experiences as a cancer survivor prepared her to intuitively understand what I need and when.

Pattie also has had a lot of practice as a caregiver; she’s been watching over me for over seven years.

I was battling symptoms for years before my multiple myeloma was diag­nosed in April of 2007. The good news was that an MRI finally revealed what a half dozen doctors couldn’t figure out. We …

Panobinostat had an important appointment this morning with a group of on­col­o­gists.

The appointment did not go so well.

The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) conducted a four-hour review of panobinostat (Farydak) earlier today.

At the end of the meeting, members of the committee were asked to vote whether they felt the benefits of panobinostat as a potential treatment for relapsed myeloma outweighed its risks.

Five committee members voted "no." …

The Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Adminis­tra­tion will convene this morning to review pano­bino­stat, and The Myeloma Beacon will provide live coverage of the meeting.

Beacon staff members will post frequent updates at the webpage for this article as the meeting proceeds. Coverage will begin at the start of the meeting at 8 a.m. Eastern Time, which is when the review of pano­bino­stat (Farydak) is scheduled to begin.

The Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis (NYSE:NVS) …

My always-in-a-hurry daughter surprised me by plopping down on the family room couch to join me for what my kids call ‘Dad Movie Night.’

Because the film featured no vampire heartthrobs, no hungry gamers, and no schoolboy hero wizards, I expected her to say ‘I’ll see ya’ later, Daddy!’ before scampering off to resume her regularly scheduled teen­age girl activities.

But to my delight, she stayed for all two hours of the flick, start to finish, soup to …

As reported earlier today by The Beacon, the U.S. Food & Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (FDA) this morning released key documents related to the agen­cy’s review of pano­bino­stat as a potential new treatment for multiple myeloma.

The documents consist of briefing reports, agendas, and other sup­port­ing material for the meeting of the FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Com­mit­tee (ODAC) this coming Thursday. The morning session of that meet­ing will be devoted to a review of pano­bino­stat (Farydak), which is being developed by the …

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration this morning released important in­for­ma­tion related to its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee meeting scheduled for this Thursday, when the committee will review data related to the application by Novartis (NYSE:NVS) to have pano­bino­stat (Farydak) approved as a new treatment for multiple myeloma.

In addition to a draft agenda and draft committee roster, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released briefing information for the com­mit­tee members and a question about the …