“Did your other doctor talk to you about your cytogenetics?” My current doctor, a myeloma specialist, asked me this while giving me a second opinion on my diag­nosis.

It was the first time I’d ever heard the term cytogenetics. My doctor ex­plained that I had a “del17” chromosomal ab­nor­mal­ity, which made my dis­ease “high risk” and poten­tially more aggressive than that of the majority of other multiple myeloma patients. Two years later, I under­stand this concept better, but occa­sionally my gut reverts back to that day and I become frightened that being …

Good morning, myeloma world.

After a particularly busy inaugural edition of Myeloma Morning, today's edition doesn't have quite as much ground to cover. We'll be focusing most of today's discussion on just four new research studies that have been published.

That being said, the first of those studies is going to require more than the usual amount of attention.

That's because the study is a new International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) consensus state­ment concerning high-risk cytogenetics – a subject of significant interest to almost everyone in myeloma world (

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

Myeloma-related presentations were made during several sessions throughout the day.

The day started out with a session designed to better educate physicians about multiple myeloma and how to treat the disease.

Two sessions of oral presentations devoted solely to multiple myeloma ran simultaneously in the middle of the day. One of the sessions focused on the biology of the disease. The other one included presentations on new myeloma ther­a­pies for both newly diagnosed and re­lapsed and …

Monday was the third day of this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).  The day was filled with oral presentation sessions from early in the morning until into the evening.

In the afternoon and early evening, there were six oral presentation sessions devoted solely to multiple myeloma and a number of other myeloma-related presentations scattered about the afternoon.  The topics of these presentations ranged from the biology of myeloma to treat­ment options for newly diag­nosed, re­lapsed and refractory, and older patients.

This ASH update highlights most of the oral …

A new retrospective study by Emory University researchers may stir de­bate about the best way to treat high-risk myeloma patients.

The researchers investigated treating high-risk myeloma patients for up to three years with a combination of Revlimid, Velcade, and dex­a­meth­a­sone.

The extended three-drug ther­a­py, which the authors describe as a com­bined con­sol­i­da­tion/​main­te­nance regimen, was initiated after the pa­tients had re­ceived a stem cell transplant.  The patients' transplants were car­ried out soon after completion of the first (induction) treat­ment reg­i­men fol­low­ing diagnosis.

Some, but not all, of the patients also received the Revlimid-Velcade-dexamethasone …

An international panel of multiple myeloma experts, known as the Inter­national Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), recently released a consen­sus statement on risk stratification for patients with multiple myeloma.

Risk stratification refers to the classification of patients into different cate­gories based on likely disease outcome.

The new IMWG risk stratification, for example, has three risk categories: low-risk, standard-risk, and high-risk.

In the new system, determination of a patient's risk classification is based on three factors: a patient's disease stage according to the Inter­national Staging System (ISS); the presence of certain chromosomal abnormalities in …

A subanalysis of recent clinical trial results shows good response rates for single-agent Kyprolis in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients with high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

Specifically, the investigators found that the response rates for patients with high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties were similar to those for patients without high-risk chromosomal ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

However, the researchers also found that response duration and over­all survival remained significantly lower in patients with high-risk chromo­som­al ab­nor­mal­i­ties.

Nevertheless, the researchers describe the results as encouraging, and they suggest that treat­ment with Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib) may be beneficial for patients with high-risk …