I am VERY lucky.  My Dad taught me how to live with multiple myeloma.

Aloha, my name is Tom Shell, and I am a 51-year-old man from Hawaii who has been living with multiple myeloma for two years now.  While living in Hawaii doesn’t help with the medical aspects of myeloma, it certainly doesn’t hurt my mental outlook!

I am a new columnist at The Beacon and will tell you more about myself in future columns.  For now, given that …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago ended last Tuesday.

The day before the meeting ended was the busiest day at the meeting with re­gard to myeloma research.  It featured a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the morn­ing and a poster session in the afternoon. In addi­tion, an education ses­sion was held in the afternoon that included one myeloma-related talk, given by Dr. Leif Bergsagel of the Mayo Clinic, about progress in the treat­ment of …

During my 25-year career as a boy’s basketball head coach, I coached over 600 games.

Regardless of whether it was the 1983 Class A state championship game in my rookie year as a head coach (we lost), or games against opponents that we were overwhelming favorites to defeat, my state of mind the night before each one of those 600 plus games never changed.

That state of mind is difficult to describe. It was one of unbearable ex­cite­ment, tempered by …

Shortly after starting my new compassionate use protocol with elo­tuzu­mab, which I described in my previous column, I began to have elevated levels of my liver enzymes.

It initially was unclear whether this was occurring due to a reaction to the drug, a tumor in the liver, or other possible causes.

After several tests, including an MRI, a PET scan, and blood workup, the source of the problem was found to be unrelated to my new treatment. …

For many people who have just been diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a key challenge is selecting a multiple myeloma specialist.

I did not face that challenge -- at least not initially.  I literally started treat­ment the day the diagnosis came in.

The evening before my diagnosis, after a routine checkup with my long-time family doctor in Nebraska, I got a call from the doctor’s urologist partner.

“I want you at the hospital within the hour,” the urologist said. “Stop at …

Array Biopharma, the company developing filanesib (ARRY-520) as a potential new treatment for multiple myeloma, today became the Myeloma Beacon’s first pharma­ceutical industry sponsor.

Array’s sponsorship will help The Beacon continue expanding the news, sup­port, and community it provides myeloma patients, caregivers, and health care pro­fes­sionals across the globe.

“It is both exciting and appropriate that Array is the Beacon’s first pharmaceutical industry sponsor,” noted the Beacon’s publisher, Boris Simkovich.  “Exciting, be­cause Array’s support will help The Beacon broaden the …

This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago came to an end yesterday.

The fourth day of the meeting, which was Monday, was the busiest day in regard to myeloma-related re­search. It started with an oral pre­sen­ta­tion session that in­cluded seven talks about im­por­tant new myeloma-related re­search. A poster session in the afternoon in­cluded several posters about myeloma-related re­search.

This article summarizes the most im­por­tant findings from Monday’s oral pre­sen­ta­tion session. A later article …