Amgen this morning announced initial results of its Phase 3 “ASPIRE” trial com­par­ing Kyprolis-Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone to Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone in pa­tients with re­lapsed multiple myeloma.

Patients in the trial who received the Kyprolis-Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone com­bi­na­tion (KRd) had significantly longer pro­gres­sion-free survival (26.3 months) than patients who received only Revlimid and dex­a­meth­a­sone (Rd) (17.6 months).

There was also a trend in the results toward improved over­all survival among the patients who received KRd versus those who did not. How­ever, the difference is not yet statistically …

For my birthday a few months ago, my husband got me a Fitbit. I’m ob­sessed with it.

A Fitbit is a small device you wear inside a band that goes around your wrist. It has magical powers and can tell when you’re walking or running, and it tracks your activity throughout the day. The goal is to take at least 10,000 steps every day.

Once you hit 10,000 steps, the Fitbit lights up and buzzes happily. When you sync your …

The myeloma community has lost a courageous and inspiring soul.

Long-time Beacon columnist Dr. Arnold Goodman, known to most of his readers as just “Arnie,” passed away yesterday in the company of his family at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Florida.

Arnie had been a physician for two decades, practicing as an ear, nose, and throat specialist, prior to his diagnosis with multiple myeloma in the spring of 2006. He continued his medical practice for three years after his …

Earlier this month, I admitted something that wasn’t easy for me: I’m refractory to both Revlimid and Velcade.

So what’s the big deal?  There are plenty of other drugs I haven’t tried.

True, my outlook isn’t as dire as it would have been three or four years ago.  I recall attending a pre­sen­ta­tion at the American Society of Hema­tol­ogy’s 2011 annual meeting in San Diego. Pomalyst and Kyprolis weren’t approved yet by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But a panel of …

One month ago, I was discharged from the hospital after having a stem cell transplant, so I obviously am not lacking for material to write about in this col­umn.

As I reflect back on my experiences, I can't help but remember a chance en­coun­ter that I had with another myeloma patient who I met at my last Zometa (zole­dron­ic acid) treatment three weeks before my transplant.

On this particular day, the chemo wing at the cancer center was …

It’s July, and we have had some time to digest the findings from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting held in Chicago May 30 through June 3.

Quite a few pre­sen­ta­tions caught one’s eye.

We finally saw the results of the much awaited PANORAMA-1 study in­ves­ti­gating the efficacy and safety of panobinostat (LBH589) plus Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone com­pared to Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone alone.

Exciting data on the CD38 anti­bodies daratumumab and

“Futbol,” or soccer as it’s known on this side of the pond, is really catch­ing on in the United States.

Over the last few weeks, many Americans, myself included, have been riveted to our televisions as we cheered for team USA in the FIFA World Cup.

It seems that soccer fever is so pervasive that even the clergy have not been spared the affliction. I recently heard a minister discuss in his sermon the dif­fer­ent styles of play of the World …