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The 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 3, through Tuesday, June 7, in Chicago.

More than 30,000 clin­i­cal spe­cialists from all over the world are ex­pected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss the cur­rent re­search in cancer treat­ment and care. This year’s meeting will primarily focus on the theme of “Patients, Pathways, Progress.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists over 40 myeloma-based abstracts.

The Myeloma Beacon will be …

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[ by The Myeloma Beacon Staff | May 9, 2011 4:18 pm | One Comment ]

Thursday was the third day of the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Workshop (IMW) in Paris.  There were pre­sen­ta­tions from early morn­ing through the evening.

Some of the highlights from the first part of Day 3 of the conference are summarized in this article.  Highlights from the sec­ond part of the day are summarized in a separate article (see re­lated Beacon news).

Treating Older, Newly Diagnosed Myeloma Patients

The first session of the morn­ing was about treating newly diag­nosed mul­ti­ple myeloma patients over the age of 65 years, spe­cif­i­cally those who are in­eli­gible for …

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Each year at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy we hear about dozens of new drugs that are able to annihilate mul­ti­ple myeloma cells in the test tube and in animal models. Unfortunately, at the same meeting, we also sit through pre­sen­ta­tions and walk by posters of drugs that looked hot in the laboratory but then fail to work when given to real patients with myeloma.

This is not new. It has been the story with myeloma for ages. The myeloma cells are smart and are seemingly able to …

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Dr. Edward Libby To Serve As The Myeloma Beacon’s First Medical Advisor – As a medical advisor for The Myeloma Beacon, Dr. Edward Libby, an asso­ci­ate professor of hematology and oncology at the University of New Mexico Cancer Center who specializes in multiple myeloma and other blood cancers, will be available to comment on current research results as well as answer select medical questions posted to the Beacon’s multiple myeloma forums.  For more in­­for­ma­tion about getting your medical question answered by a Beacon Medical Advisor, please see the instructions in the forums.

European Carfilzomib Trial To Be Expanded – Onyx Pharmaceuticals, the com­pany developing car­filz­o­mib, announced last week that it will expand the Phase 3 European clinical trial investigating the safety and efficacy of car­filz­o­mib in re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients.  Patient enrollment will be increased from 84 to 300.  In addi­tion, the main goal of the study will be to evaluate car­filz­o­mib’s impact on over­all survival, instead of pro­gres­sion-free survival.  The changes are being made based on preliminary results of a Phase 2b car­filz­o­mib study that showed promising over­all survival rates in re­lapsed / refractory myeloma patients (see related Beacon news).  For more in­­for­ma­tion about the expanded trial, see the Onyx Pharmaceuticals press release.

Teleconference On Advances In Myeloma Treatment – On April 12, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) will sponsor a free teleconference call entitled “Advances in Myeloma Treatment and Side Effects Management.”  The call will begin at noon Eastern Time and will be lead by Dr. Edward Stadtmauer, director of the bone marrow and stem cell trans­plant pro­gram at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center.  He will also speak about clinical trial par­tic­i­pa­tion and quality of life issues for myeloma patients.  After his talk, Dr. Stadtmauer will answer questions from participants.  For more in­­for­ma­tion or to register, please see the LLS website.

For a more detailed listing of myeloma related-events, please check the Myeloma Beacon Events Calendar.

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[ by Julie Shilane | Feb 28, 2011 11:40 am | 10 Comments ]

Dr. Kenneth Anderson, a world-renowned myeloma spe­cialist, physician and re­searcher at Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute, and Kraft Family Pro­fessor at Harvard Medical School, spoke with The Myeloma Beacon about his ap­proach to treating mul­ti­ple myeloma patients.

This article is the sec­ond part of a two-part series based on The Myeloma Beacon’s interview with Dr. Anderson.  It will cover Dr. Anderson’s thoughts on where myeloma treat­ment is headed in the com­ing years.  For more in­­for­ma­tion on Dr. Anderson’s cur­rent ap­proach to treating mul­ti­ple myeloma, please see part one of this series.

Emerging Therapies …

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Opinion: A Multiple Myeloma Patient’s Viewpoint On Randomized Clinical Trials – In the latest article published in the opinion section of The Myeloma Beacon, Dr. Jim Omel, a physician and multiple myeloma patient, wrote about how the clinical trial process could be changed to encourage greater par­tic­i­pa­tion among myeloma and other cancer patients. To receive a copy of all opinion articles when they are published or if you are interested in contributing an opinion piece, send an email to .

FDA Puts Carfilzomib On Fast Track For Treatment Of Multiple Myeloma – On January 31, Onyx Pharmaceuticals announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved fast-track designation for carfilzomib, a second-generation proteasome inhibitor that has shown promising anti-myeloma activity as a single agent and in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and low-dose dexamethasone (Decadron). The fast-track designation accelerates the review and approval process of drugs developed to treat serious or life-threatening illnesses. Onyx can now submit car­filz­o­mib’s New Drug Application to the FDA on a rolling basis. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the Onyx Pharmaceuticals press release.

Investigational Drug Siltuximab Enhances Melphalan Efficacy In Multiple Myeloma Cells – Pre-clinical results showed that the mono­clonal anti­body siltuximab (CNTO 328), which is being developed by Centocor Ortho Biotech, enhanced the activity of melphalan (Alkeran). Siltuximab increased mel­phalan’s toxicity to myeloma cells and neutralized interleukin-6, a protein that promotes growth and drug resistance of myeloma cells. Several clinical trials studying siltuximab in myeloma patients are ongoing. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the study in the British Journal of Haematology (abstract).

Investigational Drug BI 2536 Is Active Against Multiple Myeloma Cells – Results from a recently published study show that BI 2536, which is being developed by Boehringer Ingelheim, induces cell death in multiple myeloma cells. BI 2536 inhibits an enzyme called polo-like kinase 1, which regulates the cell cycle and has been asso­ci­ated with the devel­op­ment of many cancers.  Additionally, BI 2536 increased the efficacy of Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and dexa­meth­a­sone in these cell lines. The study authors concluded that the results suggest BI 2536 should be studied in clinical trials for multiple myeloma. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the study in the journal Experimental Hematology (abstract).

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Carfilzomib is well tolerated and highly active in both newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients as well as re­lapsed and treat­ment-resistant patients, according to the results of two recent clinical trials that were presented at the American Society of Hematology 2010 annual meeting in Orlando earlier this month.

These results further underscore car­filz­o­mib’s activity in multiple myeloma.  Several studies with promising results were also reported in poster sessions during the annual meeting (see related Beacon news).

Like Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib), carfilzomib (Kyprolis), which is being developed by Onyx Pharmaceuticals, is a …