Today is the third day of this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).  Here at The Beacon, we refer to today as “Myeloma Monday” because the day is packed full of important myeloma presentations, more than any other day of the meeting, from the early morning until the close of the day.

This ASH update describes all of the myeloma-related sessions that have and will take place today.  Additional updates to be published later today and tomorrow will highlight important oral and poster presentations made throughout the day.

The day began early in the morning with three simultaneous sessions of oral presentations about myeloma studies.  During these sessions, myeloma researchers and experts presented their latest findings about new ways of therapeutically targeting myeloma, preclinical studies of drug resistance in myeloma, and non-transplant treatment options for relapsed and refractory myeloma.

Mid-morning, there were two more oral presentation sessions focused solely on myeloma and another about stem cell transplantation that included a few myeloma-related presentations.  The two that focused on myeloma included presentations about the latest understanding of the biology of myeloma and results from studies of non-transplant therapy for myeloma.

After a lunch break, the myeloma-related oral presentation sessions continued with two simultaneous sessions devoted solely to myeloma and two other sessions that each included a myeloma-related presentation.  The two devoted to myeloma included presentations about the genetic make-up of myeloma cells and treatment options for newly diagnosed myeloma patients.

Shortly, there will be two more oral presentation sessions devoted to myeloma and another four that each has one or two myeloma-related presentations.  The two myeloma-specific sessions will focus on the bone marrow microenvironment when myeloma is present and non-transplant therapy for myeloma.

The day’s myeloma-related oral presentations will conclude in the early evening with two more myeloma-focused sessions and an additional two sessions that will each have one or more myeloma-related presentations.  The two myeloma sessions will again focus on the bone marrow microenvironment and non-transplant therapy.

There will also be a poster presentation session running at the same time as the final oral presentation sessions of the day.  During the poster presentation session, research results will be made available for review by meeting attendees in the form of posters.  Each poster, which will be about two feet high by three or four feet in length, will summarize the results of a single study. Posters — of which there will literally be hundreds — about all forms of blood cancer will be displayed in an exhibit hall covering an area larger than a football field.  Among those hundreds of posters will be about 60 myeloma-related posters.  Most of these posters will focus on the biology of myeloma or preclinical studies of new treatment methods for myeloma.

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Myeloma presentations from Day 3 and Day 4 of the ASH 2013 meeting also will be summarized in ASH daily updates to be published at The Beacon the next few days. Additional coverage of key research results from the meeting will continue in individual, topic-specific news articles. For a list of all myeloma-related ASH abstracts, a schedule of the myeloma-related ASH sessions, and all Beacon articles related to this year’s ASH meeting, see The Beacon’s ASH 2013 Myeloma Gateway ^[1].