Researchers from the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently pub­lished what they describe as a "curative blueprint" for myeloma.

The "blueprint" outlines key issues the researchers believe need to be ad­dressed if medical science is to achieve a cure for myeloma.

A crucial question that needs to be answered, the researchers argue, is whether treating "early myeloma" is more advantageous than waiting until the disease has progressed to the symptomatic, or active, stage.

The NIH researchers define "early myeloma" as symptomatic myeloma with limited organ damage, or smol­dering multiple myeloma with …

In a recent review article pub­lished in the journal Clinical Cancer Re­search, two myeloma experts from the Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute, Dr. Nikhil Munshi and Dr. Kenneth Anderson, review the latest strategies in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma.

In their article, the experts discuss newer ther­a­pies that appear to be promising in clin­i­cal and pre­clin­i­cal stud­ies.

According to the physicians, com­bi­na­tion ther­a­pies that spe­cif­i­cally target a patient’s ge­netic form of the dis­ease will be re­quired for long-term dis­ease con­trol and ultimately a cure.

Some Historical Perspective

In their review article, Drs. Munshi and …

In a recent editorial published in the journal Haematologica, two Spanish myeloma experts, Dr. Jesús San-Miguel and Dr. Maria-Victoria Mateos from the University Hospital of Salamanca, review the progress that has been made in the treatment of multiple myeloma.

More importantly, Drs. San-Miguel and Mateos propose several actions they believe will bring the medical community closer to a cure for myeloma.

These actions include achieving and maintaining the best possible response early in the treatment of the disease, using advanced tools to evaluate and optimize treatment efficacy, and seeking an appropriate balance …

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 …