Treatment strategies that com­bine Revlimid with newer types of anti-tumor agents may be ef­fec­tive for re­lapsed and re­frac­tory mul­ti­ple myeloma, ac­cord­ing to myeloma experts who reviewed re­­sults from stud­ies of these new com­bi­na­tions.

Refractory and re­lapsed mul­ti­ple myeloma is notoriously dif­fi­cult to treat. For every remission period that is achieved, relapse typ­i­cally arises sooner and with greater re­sis­tance to pre­vi­ously used ther­a­pies. These patients have lim­ited op­tions for ther­apy.

In examining trials that tested new ther­a­pies in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid (lena­lido­mide), the authors of the review hoped to find the po­ten­tial …

Elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and dexa­meth­a­sone con­tinues to show prom­ise in re­lapsed and re­frac­tory myeloma patients, ac­cord­ing to up­dated re­­sults from an on­go­ing Phase 2 clin­i­cal trial.

Response rates con­tinued to be high, par­tic­u­larly among study par­tic­i­pants re­ceiv­ing the lower elotuzumab dose.  In addi­tion, the rate of severe side effects remained low.

Dr. Philippe Moreau from the Uni­ver­sity Hospital in Nantes, France, pre­sented the re­­sults last Monday at the 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago.

“This com­bi­na­tion seems to be highly active in re­lapsed …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in Chicago, began on Friday and goes through tomorrow. How­ever, to­day is the last day with any myeloma-related sessions.

Several myeloma-related oral pre­sen­ta­tions were given this morn­ing and were summarized in an up­date pub­lished earlier to­day (see re­lated Beacon news).

This afternoon featured a poster session in which im­por­tant new re­search findings were summarized on posters throughout a large conference hall.

The stud­ies pre­sented this afternoon were on a wide variety of myeloma-related topics ranging from new treat­ments …

Today is the fourth day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2012 annual meeting, and the meeting con­tinued to be filled with in­ter­est­ing re­­sults from clin­i­cal trials in mul­ti­ple myeloma patients.

The day in­cluded a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the late morn­ing that featured re­­sults from three clin­i­cal trials involving immuno­therapy agents.

The three com­pounds, elotuzumab, siltuximab, and daratumumab, belong to the class of drugs called mono­clonal anti­bodies. They work by identifying pro­teins on the surface of myeloma cells and signal for the im­mune sys­tem to …

The 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 5, in Chicago.

More than 25,000 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. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Collaborating to Conquer Cancer.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists nearly 50 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included under “lymphoma and plasma cell disorders”).

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 …

It has been ten days since the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) came to a close.

Since the meeting started, The Beacon has been providing detailed coverage in the form of discussion forum postings, daily up­dates, and in-depth articles about key re­search findings.

In this and The Beacon's next article about the meeting, how­ever, the per­spective changes a bit.

The focus shifts to the bigger picture -- to questions like: "What was the im­pact of the meeting?", and …