Pomalidomide has demonstrated efficacy in heavily pre-treated multiple myeloma patients who have been treated with – or are even refractory to – Revlimid and Velcade.

Three studies of the use of pomalidomide (Pomalyst) in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients were presented yesterday at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Orlando.

Pomalidomide, which is being developed by the pharmaceutical company Celgene, is an immunomodulatory agent that induces the immune system to destroy myeloma cells. It belongs to the same class of drugs as Revlimid (lenalidomide) and thalidomide (Thalomid). …

Yesterday was the second full day of the 2010 American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Orlando. It was a particularly busy day in terms of material related to multiple myeloma, with numerous oral presentations during the day and an extensive poster session in the early evening.

One of the first presentations of the day was actually a press conference held to review the results of a Phase 3 study comparing the efficacy and safety of two different stem cell transplant regimens for multiple myeloma (abstract).

In one arm of this …

According to a recent study, myeloma patients with the chromosomal abnormalities del(1p21) or del(17p) had shorter time to disease progression and lower overall survival rates while taking Revlimid-dexamethasone therapy than patients without those abnormalities.

Chromosomal abnormalities result from structural changes of the chromosome.  These changes may occur through deletions, insertions, duplications, or movement of chromosomal regions. Chromosomal abnormalities are considered high-risk factors in multiple myeloma and have been an area of intensive research because they may render patients less responsive to certain treatments.

A series of prior studies have investigated the outcome …

Yeni yayınlanan bir çalışma, kromozomlarında del(1p21) veya del(17p) anomalileri olan ve Revlimid-Deksamatazon tedavisi olan miyelom hastalarında, hastalığın, kromozomlarında anomali olmayan hastalara göre daha çabuk ilerlediği ve daha düşük sağ kalma oranlarına sebep olduğunu göstermiştir.

Kromozomal anomaliler, kromozomda olan yapısal değişikliklerden kaynaklanmaktadır. Kromozomlardaki bu değişiklikler, silinme, eklenme, kopyalanma ve koromozomal bölgelerin yer değiştirmesinden dolayı meydana gelebilir. Kromozomal anomaliler multipl miyelom hastalığında yüksek risk faktörü olarak kabul edilmekte olup, hastaların tedavilere daha az duyarlı olmasından dolayı bilimadamları için önemli bir odak noktası olarak kabul edilmektedir.

Daha önceden yapılmış bir grup çalışma Revlimid (Lenalidomid)-Deksametazon (Dekadron) …

The combination of Velcade with Revlimid-dexamethasone treatment may help overcome the poor prognostic factors with certain chromosomal abnormalities more so than Revlimid-dexamethasone alone.

However, both treatment combinations were associated with an inferior response in patients with a deletion in chromosome 17. Additionally, prior resistance to thalidomide, increases in certain enzyme levels, and the presence of tumor cells outside of the bone marrow were also associated with poor outcomes in response to Revlimid-dexamethasone with or without Velcade.

In this recently published study, Greek researchers compared the efficacy of Revlimid (lenalidomide)-Velcade (bortezomib)-

Results of a recent study suggest that etoposide used in combination with G-CSF is a safe and effective mobilization strategy prior to stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma patients. The combination treatment resulted in a high stem cell harvest after one day of collection in most patients.

Stem cell mobilization is the process of increasing the number hematopoietic (blood forming) stem cells in the circulating blood to ensure that enough are available to be collected for the transplant. Hematopoietic stem cells are primarily found in the bone marrow and circulate in very …