Dr. Michel Attal from the Purpan Hospital in Toulouse, France, presented a review of current maintenance therapies for multiple myeloma during the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting last month.

The focus of Dr. Attal’s presentation was on whether there is evidence to support the use of the novel anti-myeloma agents thalidomide (Thalo­mid), Revlimid (lenalidomide), and Velcade (bortezomib) as mainte­nance therapy after initial therapy and stem cell transplantation.

Maintenance therapy refers to a prolonged, and often low-dose, form of treatment given to myeloma patients after their initial …

During the second day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago last month, Dr. Amrita Krishnan from the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California, gave a presentation on the current status of stem cell transplantation in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

Dr. Krishnan started her presentation by saying that in the United States, multiple myeloma patients make up the largest group of cancer patients undergoing stem cell transplantation.

An autologous (own) stem cell transplant is a procedure in which stem cells are harvested from …

Upfront therapy for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients should be risk-adapted and individualized, according to Dr. Vincent Rajkumar from the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Rajkumar presented his opinions about upfront therapy for myeloma during an education session at the recent annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). During his presentation, he reviewed the induction treatment options for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients and dis­cussed his opinions of the various options.

Induction therapy refers to the initial treatment given to newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients to combat their cancer.

According to …

Pomalidomide continues to show promise as a treatment for relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients, according to updated results from two recent Phase 2 clinical trials.

Findings from the two trials were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month.

“Pomalidomide has been tested in multiple clinical trials … and responses were between 30 percent to up to 65 percent when patients had one to three prior lines of therapy. Most interestingly, this agent is showing responses even in patients who are [resistant to] …

Interim results from three clinical trials suggest that MLN9708, as a single agent or in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and dexa­meth­a­sone, may be an effective and well tolerated treat­ment for both pre­vi­ously untreated multiple myeloma patients and patients with re­lapsed or refractory disease.

Findings from the three trials were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago earlier this month.

According to Dr. Irene Ghobrial from the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, who presented a review of some of the MLN9708 results at ASCO, the response rates …

Elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and dexa­meth­a­sone con­tinues to show prom­ise in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients, ac­cord­ing to up­dated re­­sults from an on­go­ing Phase 2 clin­i­cal trial.

Response rates con­tinued to be high, par­tic­u­larly among study par­tic­i­pants re­ceiv­ing the lower elotuzumab dose.  In addi­tion, the rate of severe side effects remained low.

Dr. Philippe Moreau from the Uni­ver­sity Hospital in Nantes, France, pre­sented the re­­sults last Monday at the 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

“This com­bi­na­tion seems to be highly active in re­lapsed …

Results from a number of clinical trials studying car­filz­o­mib for the treat­ment of multiple myeloma were presented at the 2012 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting last weekend.

Findings from three Phase 1/2 clinical trials showed that several carfilzomib (Kyprolis) com­bi­na­tions are effective for newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients. Researchers involved in each of these clinical trials presented the results during oral presentations at the ASCO meeting.

In addi­tion, early results from several clinical trials presented at the meeting con­tinue to show that car­filz­o­mib …