The Beacon con­tinues today with its ‘ASH preview’ series about mye­lo­ma re­search that will be pre­sented at the American Society of Hema­tol­o­gy (ASH) meet­ing in early December.

Abstracts for the ASH presentations are now avail­able, although many con­tain pre­lim­i­nary in­­for­ma­tion that will be updated at the meet­ing.

The Beacon’s ASH preview articles are in­tended to highlight the meet­ing's most in­ter­est­ing myeloma-related studies.

The first and second previews, published earlier this week and last week, provide an overview of ASH abstracts about the newest poten­tial mye­lo­ma ther­a­pies just starting out in clin­i­cal trials.  Further previews will …

Final results from a recent Phase 2 clinical trial continue to indicate that panobinostat in combination with Velcade and dexamethasone is effective for heavily pretreated multiple myeloma.

In the study, known as “PANORAMA 2,” patients who had previously relapsed and were no longer responsive to Velcade (bortezomib)-based treatment received panobinostat in combination with Velcade and dexamethasone (Decadron).

The results show that one-third (35 percent) of the patients responded to the treatment, and the median progression-free survival was 5.4 months.

In comparison, myeloma experts found during a prior review of the …

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which was held in Chicago, began on Friday and concluded on Tuesday.

Monday was the busiest day at the meeting with regard to myeloma re­search.  It featured a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the morn­ing and a poster session in the afternoon.

This up­date summarizes the myeloma-related stud­ies pre­sented during the afternoon poster session, which was the final myeloma-related session of the meeting. An earlier article covered the findings from the oral pre­sen­ta­tions that were given in the morn­ing.

Most of the key …

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 …

The American Society of Clinical Oncology will hold its 49^th annual meeting May 31 through June 4 in Chicago.

Similar to pre­vi­ous years, 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 “Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer.”

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars about all areas of cancer, in­clud­ing many focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists more than 60 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included …

Within the past nine months, two new agents have been approved for the treat­ment of re­lapsed mul­ti­ple myeloma.

In July 2012, a sec­ond gen­er­a­tion pro­te­a­some in­hib­i­tor, Kyprolis (car­filzomib), was approved for patients with re­lapsed/refractory dis­ease. In Feb­ru­ary of this year, Pomalyst (poma­lido­mide) was approved for use in similar patients.

These two agents, with dexamethasone (Decadron) or in com­bi­na­tion with other drugs, should fur­ther broaden the armamentarium for the treat­ment of myeloma as we con­tinue to strive to make myeloma a chronic dis­ease.

Rather than dwell on …

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 …