Oxford, United Kingdom (Press Release) – In March 2020, the RECOVERY (Ran­domised Eval­u­a­tion of COVid-19 thERapY) trial was estab­lished as a ran­domised clin­i­cal trial to test a range of poten­tial treat­ments for COVID-19, in­clud­ing low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone (a steroid treat­ment). Over 11,500 patients have been en­rolled from over 175 NHS hos­pi­tals in the UK.

On 8 June, recruitment to the dexa­meth­a­sone arm was halted since, in the view of the trial Steering Com­mit­tee, suf­fi­cient patients had been en­rolled to estab­lish whether or not the drug had …

As you may remember from my pre­vi­ous column, I started treat­ment with Darzalex, Revlimid, and dexa­meth­a­sone in early Octo­ber.

By now, I have re­ceived six weekly Darzalex (dara­tu­mu­mab) in­fusions, and quite a bit has hap­pened as I adjust to being on a new regi­men.

After the first in­fusion, I had a mild cough that turned into quite a deep, hacking cough. I could hardly sleep for a week. It didn’t appear to be a "productive" cough, so I took Benadryl (di­phen­hy­dra­mine) and cough med­i­cines and sat upright a lot at …

The world may not be ready for the 500th column on the joys of dexa­meth­a­sone (Decadron), but today is a dex day for me, so here it goes anyway.

I have a fair bit of experience with the corticosteroid dex, starting with my myeloma diagnosis back in 2006. My initial treatment consisted of thalido­mide (Thalomid) and dex, and I was on the two drugs for about eight months. This combination did well, getting me into complete re­mission before my autologous stem cell transplant. I had the then-current dosage of 40 …

A new year is upon us.  I hope it has started well for everybody, and that all had a great holiday season!

The last few weeks of 2014 were a hap­pen­ing time for the mul­ti­ple myeloma com­munity. The short span of time witnessed the pub­li­ca­tion of up­dated criteria for the diag­nosis of mul­ti­ple myeloma from the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Work­ing Group (IMWG). In addi­tion, the 56^th annual meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) took place in San Francisco, with literally hundreds of myeloma-related oral and poster pre­sen­ta­tions.

Therefore, it is again …

Amgen this morning announced initial results of its Phase 3 “ASPIRE” trial com­par­ing Kyprolis-Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone to Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone in pa­tients with re­lapsed multiple myeloma.

Patients in the trial who received the Kyprolis-Revlimid-dex­a­meth­a­sone com­bi­na­tion (KRd) had significantly longer pro­gres­sion-free survival (26.3 months) than patients who received only Revlimid and dex­a­meth­a­sone (Rd) (17.6 months).

There was also a trend in the results toward improved over­all survival among the patients who received KRd versus those who did not. How­ever, the difference is not yet statistically significant.

The results of the trial are important for two reasons.

First, …

French researchers earlier this week published updated results of a small Phase 2 clinical trial testing the combination of Revlimid, Velcade, and dexa­metha­sone (RVD) in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma pa­tients.

The researchers found that RVD, when given before and after stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion – and when followed by maintenance therapy with Rev­limid – led to very deep treatment responses and significant survival rates.

The 31 newly diagnosed patients in the French trial initially were treated with three cycles of RVD therapy.  Next, the trial participants underwent autologous (own) stem cell transplants, followed …

Findings from a prospective Phase 2 clinical trial indicate that the com­bi­na­tion of Revlimid, Velcade, and dexamethasone is effective in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients.

The trial enrolled 64 patients, who had been treated with a median of two prior therapies, at six different U.S. cancer centers from 2006 to 2008.

Nearly two-thirds of the patients in the trial achieved at least a partial re­sponse, despite the fact that more than half of the patients had previous­ly been treated with Velcade (bortezomib), and nearly three quarters had previously been …