Each year over 30,000 doctors, researchers, patient advocates, and patients attend the American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference. To say it is confusing and overwhelming would be an understatement. There are more than 1925 Oral Abstracts and 4039 Poster Abstracts! How does anyone navigate through the maze to make the best use of their time?[...]

In the largest ever study of smoldering myeloma patients from 13 major myeloma facilities, lenalidomide was found to delay disease progression, and helped prevent bone damage and end organ damage. The study was run by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group and funded by the National Cancer Institute. The study included 182 intermediate or high risk[...]

A new CAR T treatment has been delivered to the first myeloma patient, using an off-the-shelf approach with donor T cells aimed at a new target, CS1. Most CAR T cell therapies in today’s multiple myeloma clinical trials are “autologous,” meaning they use the patient’s own T cells. Many CAR T cell therapies in Phase[...]

We’ve seen data before by the Mayo Clinic and the University of North Carolina showing that multiple myeloma patients who are seen by a myeloma specialist live longer. A new, recent study  supports these findings.  A state cancer registry linked to public and private insurance claims was used to identify 1029 myeloma patients from 2006[...]

  The Myeloma Crowd Research Initiative (MCRI) is a new approach to funding cancer research; combining the skill and knowledge of leading myeloma specialists with the patient perspective and supportive patient social communities to select and fund promising research projects in myeloma. Our goal is to find and fund a cure for multiple myeloma.  One[...]

Having a treatment plan is essential for all myeloma patients, regardless of where you are at in your treatment journey. College football anchor Rod Gilmore, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in July 2016, knows how challenging a new diagnosis can be and is partnering with Amgen Oncology as part of this year’s Myeloma MVP team.[...]

A short article was just published in the journal Clinical Interventions in Aging that discusses the effectiveness of vaccination of MGUS patients with Prevnar (Pfizer’s 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine). The article provides some cautions for MGUS patients, such as: ‘Numerous studies have confirmed the association of MGUS with infections, particularly pneumonia, infections caused by viruses[...]

A team from UCLA Life Sciences recently published exciting research with engineered natural killer T-cells that could provide long lasting immunity against cancer through the use of invariant Natural Killer T-cells (iNKT’s). iNKT’s have been labeled as the ‘special forces’ of the immune system. Scientists have shown in the past that iNKT’s can target many[...]

A short but very interesting paper has just been published in the journal Blood Advances that provides insights as to why some multiple myeloma patients have better outcomes than others when treated with anti-BCMA CAR-T. The authors start the paper with a bang: ‘Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells are a promising, emerging therapy for[...]

Israeli researchers identified why multiple myeloma may become resistant to Velcade (bortezomib) by studying the complex signaling that happens in the bone marrow environment. Velcade is a proteasome inhibitor and is a standard treatment for the disease. Velcade is used for induction therapy, in combination therapies and also as maintenance therapy. Although it prolongs survival,[...]