The 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 5, in Chicago.

More than 25,000 clin­i­cal spe­cialists from all over the world are ex­pec­ted to attend the five-day meeting to discuss the cur­rent re­search in cancer treat­ment and care. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Collaborating to Conquer Cancer.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists nearly 50 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included under “lymphoma and plasma cell disorders”).

The ASCO meeting is one of three annual scientific meetings where im­por­tant new myeloma-related re­search findings are usually reported. The other two key conferences are the annual meetings of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) and the Euro­pean He­ma­tol­ogy Asso­ci­a­tion (EHA).

As in pre­vi­ous years, The Myeloma Beacon will be cover­ing the ASCO 2012 meeting in detail.  So readers can ex­pec­t many articles during and after the meeting about the key myeloma findings.

Organization Of The Meeting

Research findings pre­sented at ASCO and other scientific meetings are generally com­mu­ni­cated in either oral pre­sen­ta­tions or poster summaries.

Oral pre­sen­ta­tions are usually done for re­search that is con­sidered par­tic­u­larly im­por­tant, either because the subject itself is im­por­tant, or the re­­sults are based on sub­stan­tial amounts of evi­dence (for example, a sizable clin­i­cal trial).

Poster re­search summaries are made avail­able during spe­cif­ic “poster sessions,” when re­searchers make avail­able their summaries in a large exhibition hall with small exhibits for each poster.

Compared to the re­search summarized during oral pre­sen­ta­tions, the findings in poster summaries generally are in earlier stages of devel­op­ment, and may in­volve only laboratory re­search or clin­i­cal trials with just a small num­ber of patients.

Treatments Under De­vel­op­ment

Several of this year’s ASCO pre­sen­ta­tions will unveil re­­sults from Phase 1 and Phase 2 clin­i­cal trials of poten­tial new drugs under devel­op­ment for the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma. In par­tic­u­lar, there will be many pre­sen­ta­tions on carfilzomib (Kyprolis), pomalidomide, elotuzumab, Treanda (bendamustine), and sev­er­al newer drugs that are in the early stages of clin­i­cal testing.

On June 3, there will be eight oral pre­sen­ta­tions about poten­tial new anti-myeloma drugs.

The first three talks will be about car­filz­o­mib stud­ies.

First, Dr. Brigitte Kolb will present re­­sults from a Phase 1/2 study eval­u­ating the com­bi­na­tion of car­filz­o­mib, melphalan (Alkeran), and prednisone in elderly patients with mul­ti­ple myeloma.

Afterward, Dr. Joseph Mikhael will present re­­sults from a Phase 1/2 study of a new car­filz­o­mib com­bi­na­tion regi­men.  The regi­men is known as "CYCLONE," and it in­volves car­filz­o­mib, cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan), dexa­meth­a­sone, and thalidomide (Thalomid) in patients with newly diag­nosed myeloma.

The last car­filz­o­mib pre­sen­ta­tion will be one by Dr. Andrzej Jakubowiak, in which he will present an analysis of stringent com­plete re­sponses in newly diag­nosed patients treated with car­filz­o­mib, Revlimid (lena­lido­mide), and dexa­meth­a­sone.

Next, Dr. Melissa Alsina will present re­­sults from a Phase 2 study of elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and dexa­meth­a­sone in re­lapsed / re­frac­tory myeloma patients who pre­vi­ously did not respond to Velcade.

Dr. A. K. Stewart will give the pre­sen­ta­tion after Dr. Alsina's, and it is likely to be met with a great deal of interest.  Dr. Stewart will discuss re­­sults of a Phase 1 study of obatoclax, a poten­tial new myeloma drug, in com­bi­na­tion with Velcade for re­lapsed myeloma patients.  This will be the first time an oral pre­sen­ta­tion about clin­i­cal trial re­­sults for obatoclax as a myeloma treat­ment will be made at a major med­i­cal meeting.

Dr. Phillipe Rodon will then present re­­sults from a clin­i­cal trial studying the com­bi­na­tion of Treanda, Velcade, and dexa­meth­a­sone in elderly re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients.

Later in the session, Dr. Ravi Vij will present re­­sults from a study of poma­lido­mide in patients re­lapsed and re­frac­tory to Revlimid and/or Velcade.

The final pre­sen­ta­tion will be by Dr. Sagar Lonial, in which he will present re­­sults from a Phase 1 study of the oral pro­te­a­some in­hib­i­tor MLN9708 (ixazomib) in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients.

On June 4, myeloma experts will give three talks about immuno­therapy for mul­ti­ple myeloma.  The first two pre­sen­ta­tions will summarize trial re­­sults for poten­tial new myeloma treat­ments -- siltuximab and daratumumab -- that are not par­tic­u­larly well known among myeloma patients.

First, Dr. Robert Orlowski will present re­­sults from a Phase 2 study com­par­ing siltuximab plus Velcade to Velcade alone in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients.

Next, Dr Torben Plesner will present pre­lim­i­nary ef­fi­cacy re­­sults from a Phase 1/2 study of dara­tu­mu­mab in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients.

Dr. Phillipe Moreau will give the final pre­sen­ta­tion of the session.  His talk will be about a Phase 2 study of elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and dexa­meth­a­sone in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients.  Preliminary re­­sults from this trial were pre­sented at the 2011 ASH meeting and were con­sidered quite promising (see re­lated Beacon news).

During poster sessions on June 2 and 4, re­searchers will also present re­­sults from sev­er­al stud­ies investigating poten­tial new treat­ments for mul­ti­ple myeloma, in­clud­ing poma­lido­mide, elotuzumab, panobinostat (Farydak), MLN9708, SNS01-T, and a myeloma vaccine, as well as metronomic ther­apy (low-dose, daily chemo­ther­apy).

Controversies In Myeloma

During an education session on June 2, myeloma experts will discuss sev­er­al of the cur­rent controversies in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma.

Dr. Vincent Rajkumar will first give a pre­sen­ta­tion titled, “Upfront Therapy for Myeloma: Tailoring Therapy across the Disease Spectrum,” in which he will discuss the many treat­ment op­tions avail­able to newly diag­nosed myeloma patients.  Dr. Rajkumar will review re­­sults from major Phase 3 trials and present a risk-adapted in­di­vid­ualized ap­proach to myeloma ther­apy. (Dr. Rajkumar also discusses a risk-adapted ap­proach to treating myeloma in this Beacon column that he wrote.)

During the sec­ond pre­sen­ta­tion, Dr. Amrita Krishnan will give a talk titled, “Stem Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma: Who, When, and What Type?”  She will address the mul­ti­tude of questions that clin­i­cal trials are addressing in regard to stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion for mul­ti­ple myeloma.  For instance:  In the era of novel agents, should stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion be done up­front or at the time of relapse?  Are trans­plants feasible for older patients?  Are allo­geneic (donor) trans­plants better than au­tol­o­gous (self) trans­plants for high-risk patients?  What ap­proaches can be taken to reduce the risk of relapse?

Finally, Dr. Michel Attal will give a pre­sen­ta­tion titled, “Maintenance Therapy for Myeloma: How Much, How Long, and at What Cost?”  Dr. Attal will also address the many questions surrounding the use of main­te­nance ther­apy in myeloma.  For instance, what are the optimal dose and duration?  Is the risk of side effects, sec­ond cancers in par­tic­u­lar, ac­ceptable?  Will the dis­ease be more aggressive at relapse?

Revlimid And Secondary Cancers

During the poster sessions on June 2 and 4, there will be sev­er­al pre­sen­ta­tions about myeloma patients’ risk of devel­op­ing secondary cancers.

In the June 2 session, one poster will present an analysis of sec­ond cancers among patients in­cluded in a mul­ti­ple myeloma dis­ease registry.  Another poster will be about the risk factors for the devel­op­ment of sec­ond cancers after stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion for mul­ti­ple myeloma.

The June 4 session will also in­clude a poster about a retro­spec­tive­ analysis of sec­ond cancers in myeloma patients.

For more in­­for­ma­tion on ASCO’s 48th Annual Meeting, in­clud­ing the final pre­sen­ta­tion schedule and in­­for­ma­tion on attending, please see the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting website.  Abstracts for the pre­sen­ta­tions will be avail­able at 6 p.m. this evening.