One of the things that having cancer has exposed me to is random acts of kindness.

I first encountered this concept from something the late Princess Diana once said:

"Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you."

Not everything about having cancer is bad.  Disgraced bicyclist Lance Armstrong, for example, perceived his cancer as “a gift.”

That’s because confronting a diagnosis that says, ‘Hey, maybe you’re going to die soon,’ can bring to many …

A group of researchers in India published a study recently that had me jump to two conclusions.

Their research followed 170 autologous stem cell transplant patients over the years, starting around 1990, to see how these multiple myeloma patients fared.

There is, of course, good news and bad news.

The first takeway seems to be that you can make a case that things are getting better.

The research adds to the body of knowledge indicating that novel agents are leading to better response rates and increased overall survival for those who …

There’s been a fair amount of discussion lately in the columns and comment boards here at The Myeloma Beacon about stem cell transplants, as well as their effectiveness and their impact on our bodies.

Myeloma patients who have yet to have a transplant often scour the Internet looking for help and information about what they may face.  For many, stem cell transplantation is not an “if,” but more a matter of when.

The pre-transplant period brings for most people uncertainty, anticipation, and some trepidation.

Trying to understand the impacts that stem cell …

Getting a multiple myeloma diagnosis just stuns you.

That is, once you figure out what it is and what it means.

I’d guess that most people who are confronted with the news probably have never heard of myeloma.  I can say that I’d heard of it, but knew absolutely nothing about it.  I wasn’t even sure it was cancer.

Two things about myeloma stuck in my mind in the aftermath of my diagnosis in 2006: Incurable. Almost invariably fatal.

It didn’t take me long then to come to my senses.

When you’re told you …

Pssst…wanna buy some stem cells?

It seems there’s nothing to stop you now, you know.

It used to be that compensating individuals for donating peripheral blood stem cells (PBSCs) was a crime, a felony actually.  Up to five years in a federal prison.  For anyone involved in a PBSC donation for which compensation or some type of payment had been made.  This included the recipient of the “illegally” gotten stem cells.

There’s been a battle raging for many years over the inclusion of PBSCs under the terms of the National Organ Transplant …

A study from the Netherlands reported the other day that multiple myeloma patients experience low health-related quality of life.

Further, the study says that quality of life (QOL) worsens as time goes on.

As I read the headline for the short study description published in The Myeloma Beacon (“Quality of Life Decreases After Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis for Many”), I thought, “Oh those Dutch researchers, they’re such kidders.”

Who else has the time to pluck out 150 or so patients from the myeloma universe and do a bit of prospective questioning about …

Each of us has his or her own way of dealing with multiple myeloma and cancer.

I was reminded of this when I read a recent column here at The Myeloma Beacon by Dr. Arnie Goodman.  I hope you all read it.

From following Dr. Goodman’s columns of late, you’d know he hasn’t been in a particularly good way in his personal myeloma battle for some time now.  Right now he’s in a difficult place.

He’s in a position that most all of us are going to face someday where treatment …