This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting began yester­day morning in Chicago and will run through Tuesday.

Myeloma-related pre­sen­ta­tions were made during two sessions yes­ter­day.

One session was designed to better educate physicians about per­son­al­ized ther­apy for elderly patients with lymphoid malig­nan­cies. During that session, Dr. Tanya Marya Wildes from the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis talked about how to navigate treat­ment options for older multiple myeloma patients.

The key myeloma-related re­search pre­sented yesterday was made public during a poster session in the afternoon about studies …

Yesterday was the second day of the 2012 American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.  Although the myeloma-related sessions got a bit of a late start, the day featured a wide range of interesting presentations about multiple myeloma.

Many myeloma-related oral presentations were given in the afternoon and were summarized in updates published yesterday and earlier today.

During the evening yesterday, a poster session took place where important new research findings were summarized in posters displayed throughout a large conference hall. The studies covered a variety of myeloma-related topics, ranging …

Results from a recent Spanish study suggest that treatment with a combination of intravenous busulfan and melphalan is as effective as melphalan alone in preparing patients with multiple myeloma for stem cell transplantation.

Given that the busulfan (Busulfex)-melphalan (Alkeran) regimen uses a lower dose of melphalan (140 mg/m²) than the melphalan-only regimen (200 mg/m²), these findings may benefit patients who are unable to tolerate high doses of melphalan.

A previous study found that an oral busulfan-melphalan combination might be more effective but not as safe as melphalan alone in preparing …

Results of a recent small German study show that stem cell transplanta­tion as salvage therapy is most effective in patients who had a long remission duration after a previous transplant.

Specifically, results of the study show that patients who relapsed 12 months or later after their last transplant had significantly longer progression-free and overall survival times after salvage transplantation than patients who relapsed within 12 months. 

According to the study authors, patients who relapse within 12 months of a previous transplant do not benefit from this form of salvage therapy.

Based on …

High-dose melphalan continues to be the gold standard regimen for multiple myeloma patients prior to autologous stem cell therapy, according to a recent review of research investigating alternative preparative treatments before stem cell transplantation. 

The authors of the review pointed out, however, that current research on variations of this regimen may provide improved transplantation response rates for myeloma patients in the future. 

High-dose chemotherapy prior to stem cell transplantation, often called a preparative or conditioning regimen, is administered with the intention of eliminating cancerous cells from the patient’s bone marrow. High-dose chemotherapy …

In a recent study, Spanish researchers found that oral busulfan increased progression-free survival following stem cell transplant in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients compared to melphalan. However, there was no difference in overall survival between the two treatments.  Furthermore, oral busulfan treatment was associated with an increased risk of death due to the drug’s side effects.

The current standard of care for multiple myeloma patients under the age of 65 is treatment with high dose chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplant.  High dose chemotherapy prior to stem cell transplant, often called a …