Results of a recent study show that the presence of residual cancer cells and chromosomal abnormalities are strong predictors of early relapse in multiple myeloma patients who achieve a complete response after undergoing stem cell transplantation.

The results were presented last week by Dr. Bruno Paiva, from the Salamanca Hospital Complex in Spain and lead author of the study, at the 16^th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in London. The authors recommended that myeloma patients with chromosomal abnormalities and persistent residual disease following transplantation should be considered for additional (consolidation) …

As the myeloma community continues to investigate whether stem cell transplantation or novel agents is the best way to treat newly diagnosed myeloma patients, recent results from a Phase 3 clinical trial indicate that stem cell transplantation may lead to longer disease-free survival.

The results from this study show that more multiple myeloma patients who received a stem cell transplant were alive and disease-free after 24 months compared to patients treated with Revlimid in combination with conventional chemotherapy.

The transplanted patients, however, also experienced more severe side effects compared to non-transplanted patients. …

Multiple myeloma physicians and researchers are gathering at the 16^th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in London to share the latest findings in the field.  The meeting started on Thursday and will run through tomorrow.

The Myeloma Beacon will report on the most important new findings related to multiple myeloma over the next couple of weeks.

The research presented at the meeting will cover all areas of hematology, which is the study of blood, blood-forming organs, and blood-related diseases, including myeloma.

On Thursday, physicians had the opportunity to attend scientific …

Results of a Phase 2 clin­i­cal trial show that elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone is safe and ef­fec­tive in re­lapsed / refractory mul­ti­ple myeloma patients.

“Elotuzumab in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone has a very high re­sponse rate,” said Dr. Philippe Moreau from the Uni­ver­sity Hospital in Nantes, France, when he pre­sented the findings at the 47^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday.

“[The com­bi­na­tion] seems to be superior to Revlimid plus high-dose dexa­meth­a­sone,” he added.

In a summary talk about po­ten­tial new …

Monday was the fourth day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO 2011) annual meeting in Chicago.  Although the meeting concluded yes­ter­day, Monday was the last day of the meeting that con­tained any myeloma-relevant ma­teri­al.

The morn­ing started with a session recapping highlights of the meeting from Sunday.  Dr. Ivan Borello from the Johns Hopkins Uni­ver­sity School of Medicine was invited to give a 15-minute pre­sen­ta­tion recapping the myeloma highlights (see Part 1 and Part 2 of The Beacon’s Day Three up­date for more in­­for­ma­tion).

The rest of the …

This past Sunday was the third day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2011 annual meeting, and it was a particularly busy day for meeting attendees interested in multiple myeloma.

The Beacon published an update yesterday covering two sets of presentations made at Sunday’s oral session about multiple myeloma.  This article covers the other set of presentations, which was about myeloma bone disease, as well as material from an afternoon education session focused on myeloma.

Myeloma Bone Disease

The …

Results of an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial indicate that the anti-cancer drug lorvotuzumab mertansine in combination with Revlimid-dexamethasone is active in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients.

“There is encouraging activity observed at all dose levels,” said Dr. Jesus Berdeja from the Sarah Cannon Research Institute in Nashville, Tennessee, who presented these findings at the 47^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday.

In a summary talk about potential new myeloma treatments, Dr. Nikhil Munshi from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute said that he was encouraged by these first …