Monday was the third day of this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH).  The day was filled with oral presentation sessions from early in the morning until into the evening.

In the afternoon and early evening, there were six oral presentation sessions devoted solely to multiple myeloma and a number of other myeloma-related presentations scattered about the afternoon.  The topics of these presentations ranged from the biology of myeloma to treat­ment options for newly diag­nosed, re­lapsed and refractory, and older patients.

This ASH update highlights most of the oral …

A recent Greek study looks at the efficacy and safety of Revlimid plus dexa­metha­sone for re­lapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients in ‘the real world’ -- that is, in patients being treated in standard clin­i­cal practice rather than clin­i­cal trials.

The study's findings con­firm that Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) plus dexa­metha­sone (Decadron) is effective and safe in day-to-day use among re­lapsed myeloma patients.

The majority of the patients in the study (77 per­cent) responded to treat­ment with Revlimid and dexa­metha­sone, with 20 per­cent achieving a com­plete response. According to the investigators, these …

A new retrospective study provides insight into the benefit the new mye­lo­ma drugs Kyprolis and Pomalyst may provide to patients who are re­sis­tant to, or cannot tolerate, both Velcade and Revlimid.

The study's results highlight how challenging it can be to find an effective treat­ment for patients who are “dual refractory” (resistant to both Velcade and Rev­li­mid).

Patients in the study who received either Kyprolis (car­filz­o­mib) or Poma­lyst (poma­lido­mide, Imnovid) after becoming dual refractory had longer over­all survival than those who were not treated with the new drugs.

The …

Results from a small Phase 2 study conducted throughout Japan sug­gest that a com­bi­na­tion of Velcade, doxorubicin, and intermediate-dose dexa­meth­a­sone is effective in patients with re­lapsed or refractory multiple myeloma.

Most patients (89 per­cent) responded to treat­ment, with a third of them achieving a com­plete or near com­plete response.  In addi­tion, the medi­an pro­gres­sion-free survival was 12.1 months.

According to the Japanese researchers, the findings from this study are com­par­able to those from pre­vi­ous studies that examined the effective­ness of the Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib), doxorubicin (Adriamycin), and

This year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), which was held in Chicago, began on Friday and concluded on Tuesday.

Monday was the busiest day at the meeting with regard to myeloma re­search.  It featured a session of oral pre­sen­ta­tions in the morn­ing and a poster session in the afternoon.

This up­date summarizes the myeloma-related stud­ies pre­sented during the afternoon poster session, which was the final myeloma-related session of the meeting. An earlier article covered the findings from the oral pre­sen­ta­tions that were given in the morn­ing.

Most of the key …

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 …

Results from a recent retrospective study con­firm that treat­ment with a com­bi­na­tion of Revlimid and dexa­meth­a­sone slows disease pro­gres­sion and im­proves survival in elderly patients with re­lapsed or refractory myeloma.

However, findings from the study also indicate that certain side effects, such as anemia and blood clots, occurred more frequently in elderly patients.

Novel agents such as Revlimid (lena­lido­mide), thalidomide (Thalomid), and Velcade (bor­tez­o­mib) are commonly used to treat re­lapsed and refractory myeloma.

A pre­vi­ous study found that Revlimid in com­bi­na­tion with dexamethasone (Decadron) is effective in patients …