It’s July, and we have had some time to digest the findings from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting held in Chicago May 30 through June 3.

Quite a few pre­sen­ta­tions caught one’s eye.

We finally saw the results of the much awaited PANORAMA-1 study in­ves­ti­gating the efficacy and safety of panobinostat (LBH589) plus Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone com­pared to Velcade and dexa­meth­a­sone alone.

Exciting data on the CD38 anti­bodies daratumumab and SAR650984 continued to emerge at ASCO.

Another study looked at a pro­gres­sion-free …

This year’s annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago came to an end yesterday.

The fourth day of the meeting, which was Monday, was the busiest day in regard to myeloma-related re­search. It started with an oral pre­sen­ta­tion session that in­cluded seven talks about im­por­tant new myeloma-related re­search. A poster session in the afternoon in­cluded several posters about myeloma-related re­search.

This article summarizes the most im­por­tant findings from Monday’s oral pre­sen­ta­tion session. A later article will cover the findings from the after­noon poster session.

The morning session …

Panobinostat could be the next potential myeloma therapy approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Moreover, an approval decision related to the drug's potential marketing in the United States could be made by this fall.

In a surprisingly indirect manner, Novartis, the Swiss pharmaceutical com­pany that is developing pan­o­bino­stat (LBH589), announced this morn­ing that it has filed an application to have pan­o­bino­stat approved as a new drug by the FDA.

The announcement was indirect in the sense that Novartis did not actually say it has filed an application for …

• Results show adding LBH589 to bortezomib and dexamethasone significantly improved PFS by 37%, meeting Phase III study primary endpoint[1]
• Median PFS increased by 4 months (12 months in LBH589 arm versus 8 months in placebo arm); effect of LBH589 observed across all patient subgroups[1]
• Most people with multiple myeloma will relapse or become refractory; if approved, LBH589 will be first in its class of anticancer agents available to this population[1]
• Based on these data, US

 …

The American Society of Clinical Oncology will hold its 50^th annual meet­ing May 30 through June 3 in Chicago.

Similar to pre­vi­ous years, more than 25,000 physicians and re­searchers from all over the world are ex­pec­ted to attend the five-day meeting to dis­cuss the current re­search in cancer treat­ment and care.

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions about all areas of cancer, in­clud­ing many focused specifically on multiple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists in­for­ma­tion about more than 60 myeloma-related studies (included under either the "multiple myeloma" or "plasma cell …

This year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) began yesterday morning in New Orleans.

Myeloma-related presentations were made during several sessions yesterday.

Two sessions were designed to better educate physicians about multiple myeloma and how to treat the disease.

The key myeloma-related research presented yesterday was made public during a poster session in the evening about the biology of myeloma as well as pre­clin­i­cal and clin­i­cal studies testing new and existing treat­ments for myeloma.

During the session, research results were made avail­able for review by meeting attendees in the form …

- Study of LBH589 plus bor­tez­o­mib and dexa­meth­a­sone met pri­mary end­point of extending PFS compared to bor­tez­o­mib plus dexa­meth­a­sone and placebo
- LBH589 has poten­tial to be the first in its class of anticancer agents avail­able to patients with multiple myeloma
- Data will be presented at an upcoming medical congress and discussed with regu­la­tory author­i­ties world­wide

Basel, Switzerland (Press Release) - Novartis today announced that results of a Phase III trial of the in­ves­ti­ga­tional com­­pound LBH589 (panobinostat) in com­bi­na­tion with bor­tez­o­mib and dexa­meth­a­sone, met the pri­mary end­point of sig­nif­i­cantly extending pro­gres­sion-free …