Yesterday was the first day of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) 2011 annual meeting, which is being held in San Diego.

Although the day featured no oral pre­sen­ta­tions of new myeloma-related re­search, it started with an in­ter­est­ing educational session focused on mul­ti­ple myeloma.

There also were a num­ber of poster pre­sen­ta­tions during the day summarizing im­por­tant new re­search findings.

The educational session in the morn­ing featured three pre­sen­ta­tions by lead­ing myeloma spe­cialists.

Induction Therapy And Maintenance Treatment

The first pre­sen­ta­tion was by Dr. Donna Reece of the Princess Margaret Hospital in …

The European Medicines Agency announced earlier today that its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use has completed its safety review of Revlimid. The review was started earlier this year after several studies showed an increased risk of new cancers in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients being treated with Revlimid (lenalidomide) and other treatments.

The Agency's Committee has concluded that "the benefits of Revlimid, particularly improved survival, continue to outweigh the risks but recommended that the prescribing information for Revlimid be updated with a warning and advice to doctors on …

Results of a large analysis conducted in Sweden show that multiple myeloma patients are more likely than the general population to develop certain cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and non-melanoma skin cancer.

Furthermore, the researchers found that patients with the myeloma precursor disease monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) also have a greater risk of developing these cancers than the general population.

Like myeloma patients, MGUS patients have abnormal proteins in the blood as a result of defective plasma cells in the bone marrow. However, unlike myeloma patients, MGUS patients …

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 …

Three myeloma experts yesterday presented additional clinical trial data on the possible link between Revlimid and secondary cancer in multiple myeloma patients.  All three experts concluded that Revlimid’s benefit as a myeloma treatment outweighs its risks.

The presentations were made at a session of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.

In a summary talk reviewing the three presentations, Dr. Ola Landgren from the U.S. National Cancer Institute noted that the risk of developing a secondary cancer following Revlimid (lenalidomide) therapy was significantly lower than a myeloma …

Yesterday was the third day of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) 2011 annual meeting in Chicago, and it was especially packed with pre­sen­ta­tions re­lated to mul­ti­ple myeloma.

There was a morn­ing session where a total of eight re­search abstracts were pre­sented and discussed.  Then, late in the afternoon, there was an education session focused on mul­ti­ple myeloma, with sev­er­al dif­fer­en­t pre­sen­ta­tions.

The pre­sen­ta­tions during the morn­ing session were on three dif­fer­en­t topics: Revlimid (lena­lido­mide) and its po­ten­tial link to sec­ond­ary cancer; myeloma bone dis­ease; and new drugs being devel­oped as po­ten­tial …

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 …