Hello again, myeloma world.

Today's review of myeloma-related research and news covers a particu­larly wide range of topics.

We start our review with a quick look at a new study related to Pomalyst and its use in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients. (The Beacon published a separate article about this study earlier today.)

Next, we report on changes the U.S. Food and Drug Admin­istra­tion has made in the procedures for “com­passion­ate use” access to unapproved drug treat­ments, including potential new myeloma therapies.

We then turn to discussion of a European study …

Good morning, myeloma world.

We hope you had a pleasant weekend and that your new week is off to a good start.

The big news today is that Darzalex (daratumumab) has been approved in Europe as a new treatment for multiple myeloma. We will be pub­lish­ing a separate news article on the approval, which was announced a few hours ago. In the mean­time, you can find information about the approval in this press release from Genmab, the company that initially developed Darzalex.

The other news we have for you …

Good morning, myeloma world.

Since the last edition of Myeloma Morning, abstracts for two im­por­tant upcoming medical meetings have been made public: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which will take place June 3 through June 7 in Chicago, and the European Hematology Association (EHA) annual congress, which is scheduled for June 9 through June 12 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The publication of the abstracts and the meetings themselves mean that there is going to be a lot of multiple myeloma-related news in the coming weeks. We will do our …

Welcome, myeloma world, to the first "Acronym Edition" of Myeloma Morning.

Every major news item in today's report is closely linked with one or more acronyms. Once we realized this – and once we also realized that this will probably happen again in the future – we realized we had to mark the occasion in some special way.

Hence: Acronym Edition.

We have three brief research summaries at the beginning of today's report, followed by an extended Q&A.

The first two research summaries are mainly for readers interested in the biology of …

A happy Saturday to you, myeloma world.

We have some good news to report today. It also is im­por­tant news related to Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab).

Some addi­tional clin­i­cal trial results related to Darzalex were made public earlier this week, but they have not received much attention.

The new results show that adding Darzalex to Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and dexa­metha­sone sub­stan­tially – some might even say dramatically – extends pro­gres­sion-free survival in re­lapsed multiple myeloma patients.

The new results expand on news announced at the end of March, which we covered in …

Good morning, myeloma world.

We've got a lot of new myeloma-related research to cover today, so we'll get right down to business.

The first two studies we will review are related to autologous (own) stem cell transplantation.

One study looks at whether myeloma cells make their way into the infusion of a patient's own stem cells that a patient gets during the autologous transplant process. The study finds that, in some cases, myeloma cells do make it into the stem cell infusion, and when this happens, it could – again, could – …

January 19 is the anniversary of my stem cell trans­plant. I celebrate the “birthday” of my immune system each year. This year was the 9th such celebration, which seems fairly amazing to me.

Before my trans­plant, I had read about a survivor who was hoping to get two or three years of remission from his trans­plant. His account really set my ex­pec­ta­tions. Of course, I now realize that things are not that pre­dict­able with myeloma: some people do better, some worse.

I was really lucky, getting seven years without treat­ment after my …