The 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 5, in Chicago.

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 “Collaborating to Conquer Cancer.”

The meeting will in­clude many pre­sen­ta­tions and seminars focused spe­cif­i­cally on mul­ti­ple myeloma. The ASCO website cur­rently lists nearly 50 myeloma-based pre­sen­ta­tions (included under “lymphoma and plasma cell disorders”).

The …

Yesterday was the third day of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy (ASH) 2011 Annual Meeting in San Diego, and it was packed full with mul­ti­ple myeloma-related pre­sen­ta­tions. Presentations started early in the morn­ing and con­tinued through the afternoon.

The morn­ing pre­sen­ta­tions about po­ten­tial new myeloma ther­a­pies will be covered in this up­date, and pre­sen­ta­tions from the rest of the day will be covered in addi­tional up­dates.

MLN9708

During the first talk of the day, Dr. Paul Richardson from the Dana-Farber Cancer In­sti­tute in Boston pre­sented re­­sults from a Phase 1 study of …

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 results of a recent French analysis indicate that the cancer drug Treanda, in combination with prednisone or dexamethasone, may be effective in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients.

Based on their findings, the French researchers recommended that Treanda (bendamustine) be considered as a treatment option for patients with advanced multiple myeloma.

Treanda is an alkylating agent, which causes cancer cell death by damaging the cancer cells’ DNA.  The drug, which was originally developed in East Germany in the 1960s, is currently approved by the FDA to treat certain types of leukemia …

Results of a Phase 1 clinical trial suggest that the cancer drug Treanda, in combination with Revlimid and dexamethasone, is highly active and well tolerated in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma patients.

Dr. Suzanne Lentzsch, of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Cancer Institute, presented the results of the study at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2010 annual meeting in Orlando.

Based on the safety of the Treanda, Revlimid, dexamethasone regimen observed in this study, Dr. Lentzsch believes that this combination may be particularly well suited for older patients …

Tuesday was the last day of the American Society of He­ma­tol­ogy annual meeting in Orlando.  The myeloma portion of the conference concluded with one session of talks in the morn­ing about treat­ments under devel­op­ment.

The first talk was given by Dr. David Siegel of Hackensack Uni­ver­sity Medical Center in New Jersey.  Dr. Siegel pre­sented re­­sults from a study of single-agent carfilzomib in myeloma patients who had re­lapsed mul­ti­ple times and did not respond to their last treat­ment (abstract).

Among the 257 evaluable par­tic­i­pants, 24 per­cent achieved at least a partial …