How has your week started, myeloma world?

We hope it's going well so far.

We once again have a rather long list of new myeloma research we'd like to discuss with you. We sus­pect most of our readers will find at least one or two studies in the report to be of particular interest.

We begin today's report with a discussion of a somewhat rare eye-related side effect of Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and a possible way to control the side effect.

Next, we take a quick look at two articles about …

Good morning, myeloma world.

We hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start. We've been looking over the latest myeloma-related research since the last edition of Myeloma Morning, and it appears we have just a short list of new material to discuss today.

In fact, we will be focusing today on just two new research articles.

The first is from a team of U.S. researchers, most of whom are based at the Uni­versity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). The study looks at a novel way of …

Findings from a recent retrospective study conducted at the Mayo Clinic indicate that autologous stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion is an effective treat­ment option for multiple myeloma patients with advanced kid­ney disease.

The majority of patients (87 percent) responded to the treatment, with 40 percent achieving a complete response.  According to the researchers, this complete response rate is similar to those seen in other studies of stem cell trans­plan­ta­tion for myeloma patients with kid­ney disease.

However, the researchers found little evidence that trans­plan­ta­tion sig­nif­i­cant­ly improves kid­ney function in patients with advanced kid­ney dis­ease. Among …

Findings from a recent retrospective study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in­di­cate that chromo­som­al abnormalities may influence which symptoms a multiple myeloma patient has at diagnosis.

For instance, the researchers found that newly diagnosed myeloma pa­tients with the chromo­some 14 translocation t(14;16) are more likely to have kidney damage, while patients with extra chromo­somes are more likely to have bone disease or anemia.

They also found that patients with t(14;16) who did not have kidney dam­age survived significantly longer (a median of 44 months) compared to those with kidney damage (9 months).  …

Results from a recent retrospective analysis conducted in Germany indicate that the com­bi­na­tion of Velcade plus Treanda and pred­ni­sone is effective for re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma pa­tients with kidney im­pair­ment.

Specifically, 67 percent of pa­tients responded to the treatment, and kidney func­tion improved in 86 percent of pa­tients. The study investigators point out that the responses were rapid, with a median time to response of three weeks.  With a median progression-free survival of 10 months, some pa­tients experienced a long-term treatment-free interval.

Most of the severe side effects of the com­bi­na­tion …

A team of European researchers recently found that advanced age, kidney failure, infections, heart and gastrointestinal complications, and drug discontinuation are associated with poor survival among elderly myeloma patients.

The results are from a combined analysis of data from four major Euro­pean clinical trials.  All the trials involved elderly multiple myeloma patients treated with either conventional anti-myeloma agents or combi­na­tions of conventional and novel agents.

The study also found that intensive anti-myeloma treatment regimens – that is, regimens combining conventional agents with more than one novel agent – may be counterproductive in …

Tuesday was the final day of this year’s American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting, which took place in Atlanta.  The meeting concluded in the morning with a series of oral presentation sessions held simultaneously.

Three of the morning sessions focused on the biology of multiple myeloma as well as preclinical and clinical studies of treat­ment options for multiple myeloma patients.

This update will summarize the research presented during the session that focused on myeloma treat­ment options.  In addi­tion, it will summarize results from an important late-breaking study of poma­lido­mide that also was …