Janssen Biotech, the Johnson & Johnson sub­sid­i­ary that mar­kets the myeloma ther­apy Darzalex globally, has decided to halt two clin­i­cal trials testing the drug in com­bi­na­tion with other cancer treat­ments.

One of the Darzalex trials involves patients with pre­vi­ously treated metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, while the other trial involves patients with re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Genmab, the Danish com­pany that initially devel­oped Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) before licensing it to Janssen, announced news of the trial can­cel­la­tions this past Saturday.

Genmab reported that, in the lung cancer trial, no benefit …

The 54th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place this year from June 1 to June 5 in Chicago.

Approximately 40,000 physicians, nurses, and industry rep­resentatives from all over the world are expected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss current research in cancer treat­ment and care.

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions about all types of cancer, in­clud­ing many pre­­sen­ta­tions focused specifically on multiple myeloma. In fact, more than 90 myeloma-related studies are scheduled to be pre­sented, in one form or another, …

Light chain mono­clonal gam­mop­athy of undetermined sig­nif­i­cance (MGUS) has a very low probability of progressing to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, accord­ing to the results of a new study by researchers in Germany.

The German researchers found that, with a median follow-up time of 11.5 years, none of the 75 people in their study who had light chain MGUS saw their MGUS progress to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, or a related disease.

In fact, in more than half of the 31 cases where the nec­es­sary laboratory results were avail­able, study par­tic­i­pants who …

New clin­i­cal trial results for selinexor, a poten­tial new myeloma treat­ment, were released last week by Karyopharm Therapeutics, the U.S. com­pany devel­op­ing the drug.

The new results are “top line” findings, so they are very limited in scope. They are con­sis­tent, how­ever, with the favorable results pre­vi­ously seen in trials of selinexor com­bined with dexa­meth­a­sone in heavily pre­treated multiple myeloma patients. Taken together, the results suggest the selinexor-based two-drug com­bi­na­tion has noteworthy anti-myeloma activity.

Karyopharm (NASDAQ:KPTI) accompanied last week’s release of the new selinexor data with an update on its …

The results of a small, single-arm study conducted at the Ohio State University indicate that adminis­tering Darzalex using a time-saving 90-minute in­fusion protocol can be safe.

No patients in the study ex­peri­enced severe in­fusion-related reac­tions, and there was only one mild reac­tion in a patient who had no further reac­tions during sub­se­quent in­fusions at the 90-minute rate.

The faster Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) in­fusion rate tested in the study is two hours shorter than the standard 3.5 hour rate. Patients in the study were receiving their third, or sub­se­quent, Darzalex in­fusions. …

Results of a retro­spec­tive­ study conducted at the Mayo Clinic indicate that multiple myeloma patients who respond more gradually to their initial treat­ment may have better over­all survival.

Specifically, the authors of the new study find that newly diag­nosed patients who required more than 120 days to achieve their best response to initial treat­ment had better pro­gres­sion-free and over­all survival than patients who achieved their best response in 120 days or less.

The five-year survival rate was 77 per­cent for patients who achieved their best response to initial treat­ment in …

Updated multiple myeloma survival statistics for the United States were made public yesterday. The new data show little change in five-year survival compared to statistics released last year. This short-term plateau in myeloma survival stands in contrast to the sizable increases in survival seen in last year's update and the one in 2016.

The newly released statistics also show little change in how survival varies across myeloma patients based on their age, race, or gender. Age con­tin­ues to have a significant effect on survival chances, with younger patients ex­periencing …