One month ago, I was discharged from the hospital after having a stem cell transplant, so I obviously am not lacking for material to write about in this col­umn.

As I reflect back on my experiences, I can't help but remember a chance en­coun­ter that I had with another myeloma patient who I met at my last Zometa (zole­dron­ic acid) treatment three weeks before my transplant.

On this particular day, the chemo wing at the cancer center was very busy and I shared a room with another gentleman. He was …

Despite being a lifelong Boston Celtics fan, one of my favorite coaches is former Los Angeles Lakers coach Pat Riley.

I know that sounds traitorous to most Celtics fans, es­pe­cial­ly con­sider­ing the fierceness of the teams’ rivalry in the early and mid 1980s:  Bird versus Magic, Showtime versus Blue Collar, Kareem versus The Chief, McHale versus Worthy.

With all due respect to Lebron James, Kevin Durant, and the rest of the NBA today, those were the glory days of the NBA!

As a young coach during that time, I consumed everything Pat …

A group of Spanish researchers published a summary last year of the patterns of re­lapse and progression they observed in multiple myeloma patients who underwent stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion as part of their upfront therapy.

The researchers observed re­lapse in over half of the patients included in the study.  Among these patients, the majority had only achieved a partial re­sponse after trans­plan­ta­tion.

They also found that how a patient re­lapsed had an impact on their prog­nosis after re­lapse.  Patients who re­lapsed based solely on changes in disease markers, such as their M-spike level, …

Results from a recent study conducted at the Mayo Clinic suggest that the de­gree of complete response a multiple myeloma patient achieves fol­low­ing a stem cell transplant may affect their survival.

In particular, the Mayo researchers found that the five-year overall survival rate was nearly twice as high for patients who achieved a stringent com­plete re­sponse (80 percent), compared to those who achieved a com­plete response (53 percent) or near com­plete response (47 percent).

However, the researchers point out that the achievement of a stringent complete response is only one of many …

As The Beacon continues its ‘ASH Preview’ series about myeloma re­search that will be presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting in early December, this article focuses on novel im­muno­therapy approaches that are being studied in clinical trials.

Abstracts for the ASH presentations are now available, although many contain pre­lim­i­nary information that will be updated at the meet­ing.

The Beacon’s ASH preview articles are intended to highlight the meet­ing’s most interesting myeloma-related studies.

The first several of the preview articles, which were published over the past …

Findings from a recent retrospective study conducted at the Mayo Clinic indicate that autologous stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion is an effective treat­ment option for multiple myeloma patients with advanced kid­ney disease.

The majority of patients (87 percent) responded to the treatment, with 40 percent achieving a complete response.  According to the researchers, this complete response rate is similar to those seen in other studies of stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion for myeloma patients with kid­ney disease.

However, the researchers found little evidence that trans­plan­ta­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly improves kid­ney function in patients with advanced kid­ney dis­ease. Among …

Results from a recent study indicate that many myeloma patients are like­ly to suffer im­paired cog­ni­tive func­tion after their initial multiple mye­lo­ma therapy, and stem cell trans­planta­tion often causes further im­pairment.

Nearly half of the patients in the study had cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment, often referred to as ‘chemo brain,’ after receiving initial anti-myeloma therapy.  Half of the patients experienced further im­pair­ment of cog­ni­tive function at one month and again at three months following autologous (own) stem cell trans­planta­tion.

The study authors explain that the most common signs of cog­ni­tive im­pair­ment were problems with …