The Beacon is pleased to introduce our newest myeloma thought leader col­um­nist, Dr. Ravi Vij. Every three months, Dr. Vij will share with us a new edition of “The Myeloma Quiz,” which will test your knowledge and under­standing of the myeloma-related research published during the pre­vi­ous several months.

We hope you will join us in welcoming Dr. Vij to the Beacon community, and in thank­ing him for sharing with us his valuable perspectives.

The relentless grind in the battle against myeloma continues. The last several months have seen some major presentations …

Last year, 2013, was a great year for myeloma research.

We had a number of important discoveries that will impact diagnosis, moni­tor­ing, prognosis, and treatment of the disease. Some new findings provide us with a better understanding of myeloma biology and mecha­nisms of drug resistance, while others present information that immedi­ate­ly impacts how patients are man­aged.

Collectively, these discoveries represent a significant advance to­wards our goal of curing myeloma.

I present here my list of the top 10 most compelling scientific findings and discoveries of 2013 in the field of multiple myeloma. …

Over the last year or two, I have seen an increasing number of patients with multiple myeloma who are deeply worried that they have “failed” treatment because they are not in “complete response” (CR).  This phe­nom­e­non is gaining further steam with recent interest in “minimal re­sid­ual disease” (MRD).

In fact, with numerous educational programs, daily emails, and ubiqui­tous lectures touting a new regimen with even higher complete re­sponse rates, I am now almost as worried as them. Of course, the cause of my worry is not that patients have not achieved the …

Within the past nine months, two new agents have been approved for the treat­ment of re­lapsed mul­ti­ple myeloma.

In July 2012, a sec­ond gen­er­a­tion pro­te­a­some in­hib­i­tor, Kyprolis (car­filzomib), was approved for patients with re­lapsed/refractory dis­ease. In Feb­ru­ary of this year, Pomalyst (poma­lido­mide) was approved for use in similar patients.

These two agents, with dexamethasone (Decadron) or in com­bi­na­tion with other drugs, should fur­ther broaden the armamentarium for the treat­ment of myeloma as we con­tinue to strive to make myeloma a chronic dis­ease.

Rather than dwell on …

Currently, there are three major controversies in multiple myeloma patient management: early versus late transplant, treat or observe ‘high-risk’ smoldering myeloma, and whether to use maintenance therapy. The latter is predominantly an issue following autologous stem cell transplantation.

In May, one of the world’s premier medical journals, the New England Journal of Medicine, published three articles about clinical trials comparing Revlimid (lenalidomide) maintenance versus observation.  In two of the studies, Revlimid maintenance was given following autologous stem cell transplantation.  In the third study, Revlimid maintenance was given following conventional therapy in …

One of the most difficult questions in oncology is: “How long do I have to live?”

Patients often bring this up to their physicians following a diagnosis of cancer, and periodically during the course of their disease.

Of course, this is an impossible question to answer because we as physicians can seldom predict what the future holds for a particular patient. We can prob­a­bly estimate averages, but no patient is average; everyone is unique. Faced with this dilemma, each physician responds differently. Some provide the averages, some don’t.

Nevertheless, it is incredibly …

Nonsecretory myeloma is a topic shrouded in apprehension and mystery.

Patients with nonsecretory myeloma have a host of questions.  How do I track the progress of my disease? Should nonsecretory myeloma be treated differently than “standard” myeloma?  Is my prognosis different because I am nonsecretory?

Among myeloma patients with secretory disease, nonsecretory myeloma is something they often have heard of, but they are not always sure what it is, or whether it is really relevant to them.

Given the many questions and concerns related to nonsecretory myeloma, I thought I would devote …