Preliminary re­­sults from two on­go­ing clin­i­cal trials sug­gest that elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with either Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) or Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) plus low-dose dexamethasone (Decadron) is ef­fec­tive and well-tolerated in patients who have re­lapsed or are resistant (refractory) to pre­vi­ous myeloma treat­ment. The findings were pre­sented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

Elotuzumab is a new drug being devel­oped by Facet Biotech and Bristol-Myers Squibb as a po­ten­tial treat­ment for mul­ti­ple myeloma. It sel­ectively targets pro­teins that are on the surface of …

The third day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2010 annual meeting in Chicago was tailor-made for morn­ing people interested in mul­ti­ple myeloma.  The key myeloma-related activity on Sunday, June 6 was a morn­ing abstract session start­ing at 9:30 a.m.  Nine abstracts were pre­sented and discussed over the course of three hours.

The first two pre­sen­ta­tions dealt with Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib)-related re­search.

Dr. Antonio Palumbo of the Uni­ver­sity of Turin pre­sented the re­­sults of the first study.  It com­pared two regi­mens for the treat­ment of newly diag­nosed elderly myeloma patients.  The first regi­men in­volved …

Yesterday -- Saturday, June 5 -- was the sec­ond day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2010 annual meeting in Chicago.  It was a busy day in terms of re­search posters and pre­sen­ta­tions re­lated to mul­ti­ple myeloma.  As a re­­sult, there is a lot of ground to cover in this up­date.

Almost 40 myeloma-related posters were up for meeting attendees to view during the daytime poster session on "lymphoma and plasma cell disorders."  Among those 40-or-so posters, six con­cerned re­search done by the myeloma team at the Uni­ver­sity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), …

The year 2009 brought a lot of new and ex­cit­ing ad­vancements in the field of mul­ti­ple myeloma. Over the course of 2009, The Myeloma Beacon covered more than 100 im­por­tant myeloma-related stud­ies.

To highlight the most im­por­tant of these stud­ies, the Myeloma Beacon surveyed lead­ing physicians and re­searchers in the field. These physicians and re­searchers were asked to name the three peer reviewed journal articles pub­lished in 2009 and the three conference abstracts from 2009 that have the most im­por­tant findings or implications relating to mul­ti­ple myeloma.

The top three journal …

Preliminary re­­sults from an on­go­ing Phase 1/2 clin­i­cal trial sug­gest that elotuzumab, in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and low-dose dexamethasone (Decadron), may have po­ten­tial in the treat­ment of mul­ti­ple myeloma. The findings were pre­sented at the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy’s 51^st Annual Meeting at the beginning of last month.

Dr. Ravi Vij from the Uni­ver­sity of Washington in St. Louis, co-author of the study, remarked, “The trial showed very high rates of re­sponse when elotuzumab is given in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid.”

Elotuzumab is a new drug that is cur­rently …

A num­ber of new drugs are on the horizon for re­lapsed and re­frac­tory patients, as discussed by physicians at the 2009 Inter­na­tional Myeloma Workshop (IMW). The dis­cus­sion covered drugs in all stages of devel­op­ment, from those still undergoing initial lab testing to ones already in inter­na­tional clin­i­cal trials.

Overall re­spon­siveness to treat­ment has im­proved dramatically with the recent in­tro­duc­tion of more potent agents such as Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib). Doctors are now testing com­bi­na­tions of these two drugs with newer pharma­ceu­ticals. Of the two, Velcade has been …