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Dr. Ken Shain Joins The Beacon's Medical Advisor Team – Dr. Ken Shain, an assistant professor of hema­to­logic malignancies at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, has joined The Myeloma Beacon's team of Medical Advisors.  Beacon Medical Advisors assist with answering medical questions posted in the Beacon’s multiple myeloma forums.  For more in­­for­ma­tion about getting medical questions answered in the forums, please see these instructions.

Onyx And MMRF Offer Carfilzomib Expanded Access Program For Myeloma Patients – Onyx Pharmaceuticals and the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) announced last week that they have created the Carfilzomib Myeloma Access Program (C-MAP), which will make carfilzomib available to re­lapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients in the United States who do not have any treat­ment alter­na­tives. Carfilzomib is cur­rently being in­ves­ti­gated as a treat­ment for multiple myeloma. The drug is not yet approved for use in the U.S.; however, under its expanded access pro­gram, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration allows ill patients who lack any other treat­ment options to try a promising drug that is still under devel­op­ment. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the Onyx C-MAP website.

Janssen Launches Physician Access Program For Doxil – Janssen Products, the manu­­fac­­turer of Doxil (doxorubicin liposomal), announced on Friday that, in response to a temporary shortage of Doxil, the com­pany has established the Doxil C.A.R.E.S. Physician Access Program.  This pro­gram will allocate any newly available Doxil supply to physicians who are treating patients cur­rently on the drug. The goal of the pro­gram is to ensure that patients cur­rently on Doxil receive their medication.  Janssen announced manu­fac­tur­ing delays last month that resulted in a temporary shortage of the drug. Doxil is cur­rently approved in com­bi­na­tion with Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) for pre­vi­ously treated multiple myeloma patients. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the Doxil website.

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MDX-1097 Receives Orphan Drug Status For Multiple Myeloma – The Australian bio-therapeutic com­pany Immune System Therapeutics announced last week that it has received orphan drug designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its investigational drug MDX-1097. MDX-1097 is an anti­body that binds to certain proteins on the surface of myeloma cells, triggering the immune system to kill the cancer cells. The FDA uses the orphan drug designation to promote the devel­op­ment of new treat­ments for rare diseases that affect fewer than 200,000 individuals in the United States. The orphan drug status provides the developer of the drug with several benefits, including funding for clinical trials and marketing exclusivity for up to seven years.  For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the Immune System Therapeutics press release.

MD Anderson Cancer Center Announces Start Of Phase 1 Trial With Carfilzomib Plus Panobinostat In Myeloma – The MD Anderson Cancer Center announced last week that it will be starting a Phase 1 trial in early August to determine the highest tolerable dose levels of carfilzomib in com­bi­na­tion with panobinostat (Farydak) in re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients. The safety of the com­bi­na­tion treat­ment will also be assessed. Carfilzomib, which belongs to the same class of drugs as Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib), is a new drug from Onyx Pharmaceuticals that is cur­rently being in­ves­ti­gated as a potential treat­ment for multiple myeloma. Panobinostat is an oral experimental cancer drug that is being developed by Novartis. For more in­­for­ma­tion, please see the clinical trial description.

Music Against Myeloma – On Wednesday, July 13, several bands will play at Greenhouse in Manhattan to raise awareness and funds for multiple myeloma. The event starts at 8 p.m. and will feature live bands, drink specials, cupcakes, and more.  All proceeds will go to the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Foundation. For more in­­for­ma­tion and tickets, please see the Music Against Myeloma website.

For a more detailed listing of myeloma-related events, please check the Myeloma Beacon Events Calendar.

News»

[ by Julie Shilane | Jun 8, 2011 6:13 pm | Comments Off ]

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 …

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[ by Julie Shilane | Jun 4, 2011 4:09 pm | 2 Comments ]

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

On the first day of the meeting, there was only one talk related to multiple myeloma.  During an afternoon education session, in which current practice and recent research results are reviewed, Dr. Raphael Fonseca from the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Arizona, spoke about high-risk multiple myeloma.

The second day of the meeting included a morning and an afternoon session in which myeloma researchers presented their findings in the form …

News»

The 47th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 3, through Tuesday, June 7, in Chicago.

More than 30,000 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. This year’s meeting will primarily focus on the theme of “Patients, Pathways, Progress.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists over 40 myeloma-based abstracts.

The Myeloma Beacon will be …

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[ by The Myeloma Beacon Staff | May 9, 2011 4:18 pm | One Comment ]

Thursday was the third day of the Inter­na­tional Myeloma Workshop (IMW) in Paris.  There were pre­sen­ta­tions from early morn­ing through the evening.

Some of the highlights from the first part of Day 3 of the conference are summarized in this article.  Highlights from the sec­ond part of the day are summarized in a separate article (see re­lated Beacon news).

Treating Older, Newly Diagnosed Myeloma Patients

The first session of the morn­ing was about treating newly diag­nosed mul­ti­ple myeloma patients over the age of 65 years, spe­cif­i­cally those who are in­eli­gible for …

News, Opinion»

Each year at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy we hear about dozens of new drugs that are able to annihilate mul­ti­ple myeloma cells in the test tube and in animal models. Unfortunately, at the same meeting, we also sit through pre­sen­ta­tions and walk by posters of drugs that looked hot in the laboratory but then fail to work when given to real patients with myeloma.

This is not new. It has been the story with myeloma for ages. The myeloma cells are smart and are seemingly able to …