The main mul­ti­ple myeloma-related poster session at this year's Amer­i­can Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago took place last Monday. Several of the posters pre­sented during that session focused on poten­tial new mul­ti­ple myeloma ther­a­pies. Those posters were reviewed in the Beacon's previous ASCO mul­ti­ple myeloma up­date.

In this, the Beacon's final ASCO 2016 up­date, the attention shifts to posters from the Monday session that were re­lated to existing myeloma ther­a­pies, as well as a pair of posters re­lated to smol­der­ing mul­ti­ple myeloma.

The posters about existing ther­a­pies …

A team of European researchers has pub­lished results of a major clinical trial investi­gat­ing the efficacy and safety of Pomalyst (poma­lido­mide, Imnovid) and dexa­metha­sone in multiple myeloma patients who have had many prior ther­apies.

Results of the trial, known as the STRATUS (MM-010) study, have pre­vi­ously been presented at several major medical meetings. This is the first time, how­ever, that the results have been summarized in a journal article.

The new efficacy and safety results are in line with previously published results of other trials testing the combination of Pomalyst …

Good morning, myeloma world.

Since the last edition of Myeloma Morning, abstracts for two im­por­tant upcoming medical meetings have been made public: the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting, which will take place June 3 through June 7 in Chicago, and the European Hematology Association (EHA) annual congress, which is scheduled for June 9 through June 12 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The publication of the abstracts and the meetings themselves mean that there is going to be a lot of multiple myeloma-related news in the coming weeks. We will do our …

Good morning, myeloma world.

It's a glorious spring morning here at Myeloma Morning Headquarters. The sun is coming up in the midst of a clear blue sky, and the cherry tree out front is bursting with blossoms.

In other words, it's a great day to get excited about new multiple myeloma research and other myeloma-related developments.

First, we take a look at a new study by researchers at the John Theurer Cancer Center (JTCC) in New Jersey. They examine whether Pomalyst (pomalidomide, Imnovid) can be used safely in relapsed myeloma patients with …

Results featured at the 57th Annual American Society of Hematology Meeting and Exposition:

• 72 per­cent of re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients treated with dara­tu­mu­mab com­bi­na­tion ther­apy did not progress or relapse after 18 months of treat­ment (GEN 503)
• Daratumumab in com­bi­na­tion with poma­lido­mide and dexa­meth­a­sone produced rapid, deep and durable responses in re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients who had received at least two (median of 3.5) prior lines of ther­apy, in­­clud­ing two or more consecutive cycles of lena­lido­mide and bor­tez­o­mib, and were refractory to their last line of treat­ment (MMY1001 Phase1b)
• Single-agent dara­tu­mu­mab dem­onstrated a median over­all survival of 20 months in heavily pre-treated re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients who have exhausted other approved treat­ment options. A partial response or better was achieved by 31 per­cent of patients, and 83 per­cent achieved stable disease or better (GEN 501 & MMY2002)

Beerse, Belgium (Press Release) – Janssen-Cilag Inter­na­tional NV announced new data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 GEN503 inves­ti­ga­tional study showing the human CD38-directed mono­clonal anti­body dara­tumumab, in com­bi­na­tion with lena­lido­mide and dexa­meth­a­sone, yielded an over­all response rate (ORR) of 81 per­cent in re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients who had received a median of two prior ther­a­pies. After 18 months of treat­ment, investigators observed an over­all survival (OS) rate of 90 per­cent, with 72 per­cent …

Summit, NJ (Press Release) – Celgene Corpo­ra­tion (NASDAQ:CELG) today announced it has fulfilled the accelerated approval require­ments for POMALYST® (poma­lido­mide) based on results from MM-003, an inter­na­tional phase III study of POMALYST plus low-dose dex­a­meth­a­sone versus high-dose dex­a­meth­a­sone in re­lapsed / refractory multiple myeloma patients. POMALYST, in com­bi­na­tion with dex­a­meth­a­sone is ap­proved for patients with multiple myeloma who have received at least two prior ther­a­pies in­­clud­ing lena­lido­mide and a pro­te­a­some inhibitor and have dem­onstrated disease pro­gres­sion on or within 60 days of com­ple­tion of the last ther­apy.

"There remains a sig­nif­i­cant unmet need …

This past Sunday was the second day of the American Society of Hema­tology’s (ASH) annual meeting, which was held in San Francisco.

As on the first day of the meeting, myeloma-related pre­sen­ta­tions once again took place during several sessions through­out the day.

A myeloma-related education session held the first day of the conference was repeated once again on Sunday morning.

While the education session was being held, a separate “scientific sym­po­sium” with two oral pre­sen­ta­tions took place in parallel.  The session focused on a novel immuno­therapeutic ap­proach to treating cancer known as …