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,[...]

The key word is “hope” from the recent IMW 2019 meeting, according to myeloma specialist Mohamad Mohty, MD, PhD, Professor of Hematology and head of the Hematology and Cellular Therapy Department at the Saint-Antoine Hospital at University Pierre & Marie Curie, Paris, France. Dr. Mohty shared two topics he believes stood out at the meeting:  MRD Testing[...]

An antibody drug conjugate is a type of immunotherapy being explored in multiple myeloma. Glaxo-Smith Klein is developing a new antibody drug conjugate in myeloma called Belantamab mafodotin (or “belmaf” for short). These drugs use the immune system to find the right myeloma-specific target and then drop a toxic payload in a targeted way. At[...]

Melflufen is an anti-myeloma drug by Octopeptides AB given by IV infusion that is currently in clinical trials. Dr. Paul Richardson of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute shared an update on the HORIZON study results at the recent International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) conference in Boston. Melflufen is a new IV therapy currently in clinical trials[...]

By Jack Aiello, Myeloma Survivor Diagnosed 1995 This is my third time attending an International Myeloma Workshop (IMW) meeting which is held every 2 years. This 4-day meeting consists of 3200 attendees from 41 countries, mostly hematologists (70%) with smaller numbers of pharma reps (15%), researchers, and nurses who were there to present and learn[...]

Two relatively newer therapies (carfilzomib and daratumumab) have now been combined with dexamethasone in the Phase III CANDOR study and showed a 37% reduction in the risk of myeloma progression or death for relapsed or refractory myeloma patients treated with the triplet combination. The CANDOR study evaluated 466 relapsed or refractory myeloma patients who had[...]

Today’s myeloma therapy can effectively kill myeloma in many patients and even make them minimal residual disease negative. But then years later, it can grow back. How is this possible? University of Iowa researchers and colleagues are working to identify which cells are “tumor-initiating” or cause myeloma to grow. In a recent paper, the researchers[...]