Yesterday was the first day of research presentations at this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, which is being held in Atlanta.

Research findings related to multiple myeloma was presented in three different sessions during the day.

Two of the sessions were actually the same general educational session about multiple myeloma, repeated at two different times during the day. The Beacon will cover the presentations given during those sessions in a separate daily update.

The key myeloma-related research presented yesterday, however, was made public during a poster session in the …

Many new and promising re­search devel­op­ments oc­curred in the field of mul­ti­ple myeloma during 2011. Over the course of the year, The Myeloma Beacon pub­lished nearly 100 articles on im­por­tant myeloma-related stud­ies.

To identify the most im­por­tant of these stud­ies from 2011, The Myeloma Beacon surveyed lead­ing physicians and re­searchers in the field.  They were asked to name the three peer-reviewed journal articles pub­lished in 2011 and the three conference pre­sen­ta­tions from 2011 that have the most im­por­tant findings or implications relating to mul­ti­ple myeloma.

Their selections for the most im­por­tant journal …

What were the myeloma-related "hidden gems" of the recent American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, which ended two weeks ago?

The Beacon asked exactly this question of its Medical Advisors -- the myeloma specialists who generously share their knowledge and expertise in the Beacon's myeloma discussion forum.

And the responses from the Advisors were surprising.

Surprising, because they were so similar.

The three Advisors who responded to the Beacon's question indepen­dently picked the same "hidden gem" -- specifically, the research presented at the meeting showing that the protein …

Results from a number of multiple myeloma studies were presented yesterday during the second day of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 annual meeting in San Diego.

Predicting Response To Immunomodulatory Drugs

During an oral presentation and a poster presentation yesterday, researchers discussed the role of the protein cereblon in the treatment of myeloma.  Results from one study (abstract) in myeloma cell lines suggested that cereblon plays a key role in whether multiple myeloma patients respond to the immunomodulatory drugs Revlimid (lenalidomide) and pomalidomide.  Another study (abstract) …