NewsFlash »

Weekly Polls About Multiple Myeloma Have Started In The Beacon Forums – The Myeloma Beacon has started conducting “Weekly Polls” in the Beacon forums.  These polls and their related discussions address important myeloma-related questions and are intended to provide useful information and insight for multiple myeloma patients and caregivers.  Each poll will begin on Wednesday and run for one week; results can be viewed at any time.  The first poll question is: How involved are you in your myeloma treatment decisions?  This poll will be open for another two days, so please feel free to vote or join the discussion.

Anti-Nausea Drug Zofran Should Not Be Used In Patients With A Certain Heart Condition – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline will be required to conduct a safety review and to add a warning to the product labels for the anti-nausea drug Zofran (ondansetron).  The updated labels will warn against use in patients with congenital long QT syndrome, a heart condition characterized by irregular heartbeats that may cause fainting, seizures, and sudden death. The revised labels will also recommend electrocardiogram heart monitoring in patients with electrolyte imbalances, congestive heart failure, slow heartbeat, or those taking other medications that can cause QT prolongation. Zofran is a class of drugs used to prevent nausea and vomiting caused by cancer chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. For more information, please see the FDA press release.

Acetylon Pharmaceuticals Begins Phase 1/2 Clinical Trial Of ACY-1215 For Multiple Myeloma – Acetylon Pharmaceuticals recently announced the start of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of the investigational drug ACY-1215 for relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma. The study will evaluate the effectiveness of ACY-1215 when taken alone or in combination with Velcade (bortezomib) plus dexamethasone (Decadron). ACY-1215 is an HDAC inhibitor like myeloma drug candidates Zolinza (vorinostat) and panobinostat.  However, ACY-1215 is intended to be more selective than other HDAC inhibitors, meaning that it may have higher efficacy and fewer side effects. For more information about the study or enrollment, please see the Acetylon press release or the clinical trial description.

Study Suggests Myeloma Patients Have Increased Risk Of Developing Kidney Cancer – Results of a recent, large analysis show that multiple myeloma patients may have a higher risk of developing a certain type of kidney cancer than the general population. The study included 34,156 myeloma patients diagnosed between 1973 and 2006. The myeloma patients were 1.9 times as likely to develop renal cell carcinoma as the general population. The study also determined that patients originally diagnosed with kidney cancer were at an increased risk of developing myeloma, suggesting that the two cancers share common risk factors. For more information, please see the article in the British Journal of Urology International (abstract).