This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which is being held in Chicago, began on Friday and goes through Tuesday.

Sunday started with a poster session in which im­por­tant new re­search findings were summarized on posters dis­played throughout a large conference hall.

The stud­ies pre­sented during the session were on a wide variety of myeloma-related topics, in­clud­ing new treat­ments being devel­oped for myeloma, cur­rently used regi­mens, smol­der­ing mul­ti­ple myeloma, and findings on initial ther­apy.

Some of the posters in­cluded pre­lim­i­nary results from on­go­ing clin­i­cal trials.  Others described the design …

Although this year's annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) started last Friday, the first myeloma-related presentations at the meeting did not take place until Saturday afternoon, the second day of the conference.

The presentations Saturday were given as part of a single education session titled “Multiple Myeloma: Advances in Diagnostics and Management.”

Education sessions, it should be pointed out, are different than most of the sessions that typically take place at scientific meetings such as ASCO.

During the majority of sessions at such meetings, scientists are expected to …

The American Society of Clinical Oncology will hold its 49^th annual meeting May 31 through June 4 in Chicago.

Similar to pre­vi­ous years, more than 25,000 clin­i­cal spe­cialists from all over the world are ex­pec­ted to attend the five-day meeting to discuss the cur­rent re­search in cancer treat­ment and care. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer.”

During the meeting, there will be pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars about all areas of cancer, in­clud­ing many focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists more than 60 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included …

During a session at the International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) held in Japan earlier this month, Dr. María-Victoria Mateos of the University Hospital in Sala­manca, Spain, discussed whether smoldering multiple myeloma patients should be actively treated.

The current standard of care is to monitor smoldering myeloma patients and to begin treatment only when their disease progresses to sympto­matic multiple myeloma.

However, in Dr. Mateos's opinion, smoldering myeloma patients who are at high risk of progressing to symptomatic myeloma should be offered early treatment.

During the IMW, Dr. Mateos presented updated …

Further findings from two clinical studies of Revlimid maintenance thera­py were presented at the 14^th International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) in Kyoto, Japan, earlier this month.

Both studies involved newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients who received maintenance therapy with Revlimid (lenalidomide).

Results from both studies, which were published in the New England Journal of Medicine last May, indicate that Revlimid maintenance therapy significantly increases progression-free survival compared to a placebo (see related Beacon news). One of the studies also found that Revlimid maintenance therapy improved overall survival of patients.

Both studies …

A subgroup analysis of recent Phase 1/2 clinical trial results shows that Kyprolis in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and low-dose dexa­meth­a­sone is effective and well tolerated in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients over the age of 65.

All of the evaluated patients responded to treat­ment, with 83 per­cent of patients reaching at least a near complete response.

According to Dr. Andrzei Jakubowiak of the University of Chicago Medical Center, who presented the findings earlier this month at the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Workshop (IMW) in Kyoto, Japan, the response rates compare favorably to the best …

During a session at the International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) held in Japan last week, Dr. Keith Stewart from the Mayo Clinic summarized the latest findings from research related to the protein cereblon and its im­pact on certain myeloma treatments.

Dr. Stewart reported that low levels of cereblon are associated with lower re­sponse rates and reduced survival outcomes in multiple myeloma patients treated with the immunomodulatory agents Revlimid (lena­lido­mide), thalidomide (Thalomid), and Pomalyst (pomalidomide).

He explained that, with further investigation, these findings may eventually help physicians customize ther­apy …