Pomalidomide was one of the potential new myeloma treatments in the spotlight at the 2011 meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) held earlier this month.

The consensus is that the drug, a chemical relative of thalidomide and Revlimid, performed well during its time on the stage.

Research findings about pomalidomide (Pomalyst) were summarized in four of the meeting’s oral presentations and a number of poster presentations.

Most of these presentations examined pomalidomide’s efficacy and safety as a potential treatment for relapsed and refractory myeloma patients.

Physicians …

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 …

The afternoon sessions of the third day of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 annual meeting in San Diego were just as awash with myeloma-related presentations as were the morning sessions.

Many of the afternoon sessions were devoted to two particular potential new myeloma treat­ments: car­filz­o­mib and pomalidome.

Those presentations will be covered in this article, while presentation from the afternoon sessions that were about other new ther­a­pies will be summarized in the final daily update for the meeting's third day.

Carfilzomib

Carfilzomib (Kyprolis) is an investigational drug that belongs to the …

Results of a recent study show that multiple myeloma patients who relapse after pomalidomide therapy may benefit from certain salvage therapies, including Velcade, Revlimid, and stem cell transplantation.

Furthermore, patients who received a stem cell transplant after relapse achieved the highest response rate among all patients who received salvage therapy. The results also suggest that Revlimid retains its activity in patients who relapse after pomalidomide therapy.

“[The study] gives a sense of what therapies still continue to have activity [after patients relapse on pomalidomide],” said Dr. Shaji Kumar of the Mayo Clinic …

Results of a recent study conducted by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, indicate that pomalidomide (Pomalyst) may be effective in patients who develop extramedullary disease during treatment with thalidomide, Revlimid, or Velcade.

However, the results also showed these patients had shorter overall survival times than patients who did not develop extramedullary disease during treatment.

The study authors indicated that further studies are required to determine whether novel drugs directly increase the likelihood of developing extramedullary disease.

“We don't know if we are seeing [the development of extramedullary …

Results of a recent study show that multiple myeloma patients who were initially treated with either thalidomide or Revlimid demonstrated strong responses to treatment with Revlimid and pomalidomide following relapse. In particular, researchers observed the highest response rates in patients who received treatment with pomalidomide.

Dr. Sumit Madan of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, presented the study results at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Orlando last month.

Research has previously shown that thalidomide (Thalomid) and Revlimid (lenalidomide), which belong to the same class of drugs …

Pomalidomide has demonstrated efficacy in heavily pre-treated multiple myeloma patients who have been treated with – or are even refractory to – Revlimid and Velcade.

Three studies of the use of pomalidomide (Pomalyst) in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients were presented yesterday at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Orlando.

Pomalidomide, which is being developed by the pharmaceutical company Celgene, is an immunomodulatory agent that induces the immune system to destroy myeloma cells. It belongs to the same class of drugs as Revlimid (lenalidomide) and thalidomide (Thalomid). …