Good morning, myeloma world.

We hope you had a pleasant weekend and that your new week is off to a good start.

The big news today is that Darzalex (daratumumab) has been approved in Europe as a new treatment for multiple myeloma. We will be pub­lish­ing a separate news article on the approval, which was announced a few hours ago. In the mean­time, you can find information about the approval in this press release from Genmab, the company that initially developed Darzalex.

The other news we have for you …

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 …

Hello again, myeloma world.

As we continue catching up after the recent onslaught of new myeloma-related research, we're pleased to report that it's a sunny spring day outside. More importantly, our top story today reflects Mother Nature's pleasant disposition.

In particular, there is updated data about multiple myeloma survival in the United States, and it's good news.

It's just an annual update – a single new value for survival five-years from the time of diagnosis. And it's for patients diagnosed all the way back in 2008 – the most recent year for …

Good morning, myeloma world.

It's Monday, and the weekend definitely is over. The vigorous activity in our email inbox is making that eminently clear. But, with the week still so young, there isn't much new myeloma research for us to review with you. In fact, we have just two new studies that we'd like to discuss today.

Both studies are by European researchers who have compiled and analyzed retrospective data on some important topics.

One study out of Portugal looks at the use of Revlimid (lenalidomide) to treat multiple myeloma patients who …

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 …

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 …