Today was the third day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, and the morning was filled with oral presentations about important myeloma-related studies.  Most of the talks were about potential new anti-myeloma drugs.

This update summarizes the presentations about panobinostat (Farydak), obatoclax, Treanda (bendamustine), and MLN9708 (ixazomib), which are all being developed as potential multiple myeloma treat­ments.  In addi­tion, the update includes a recap of a presenta­tion about the safety of long-term bis­phos­pho­nate use.

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

The first of the myeloma-related sessions at this year's meeting began this morning with a poster session, in which important new research findings were summarized on posters throughout a large conference hall.

MLN9708

This morning’s session included two posters about MLN9708 (ixazomib), an oral drug that works similarly to Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) and is being in­ves­ti­gated for the treat­ment of multiple myeloma as well as …

The 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 5, in Chicago.

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 “Collaborating to Conquer Cancer.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists nearly 50 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included under “lymphoma and plasma cell disorders”).

The …

Many new and promising re­search devel­op­ments oc­curred in the field of mul­ti­ple myeloma during 2011. Over the course of the year, The Myeloma Beacon pub­lished nearly 100 articles on im­por­tant myeloma-related stud­ies.

To identify the most im­por­tant of these stud­ies from 2011, The Myeloma Beacon surveyed lead­ing physicians and re­searchers in the field.  They were asked to name the three peer-reviewed journal articles pub­lished in 2011 and the three conference pre­sen­ta­tions from 2011 that have the most im­por­tant findings or implications relating to mul­ti­ple myeloma.

Their selections for the most im­por­tant journal …

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 …

As the third day of the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting came to an end, attendees could look back on an agenda that featured presentations about a wide range of potential new myeloma ther­a­pies.

The afternoon myeloma sessions were focused, in fact, on potential new ther­a­pies.

The Beacon's pre­vi­ous ASH 2011 update covered the afternoon presentations about carfilzomib and pomalidomide, two potential myeloma ther­a­pies that are in the late stages of devel­op­ment.

This update covers the afternoon's presentations about four other potential new myeloma ther­a­pies -- MLN9708, panobinostat, …

The initial results from three early-phase clinical trials suggest that the investi­gational drug MLN9708, either alone or in com­bi­na­tion with Revlimid and dexa­methasone, may be an effective treat­ment for both newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients and patients with re­lapsed and/or treat­ment-resistant disease.

The findings from the three trials were presented earlier this week at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting in San Diego.

MLN9708 (ixazomib) belongs to the same class of drugs as Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib), called proteasome inhibitors, and it is being developed by Millennium Pharmaceuticals, the same com­pany that developed …