Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved subcutaneous administration of Velcade (see related Beacon news).  Previously, intravenous administration was the only approved method.

More details are provided in this article to answer multiple myeloma patients’ questions about the FDA decision.

What exactly did the FDA approve?

The FDA approved a supplemental new drug application for Velcade (bortezomib), which is an application to make changes to an already approved product.  Specifically, the FDA approved updated prescribing…

The Chinese New Year arrives this week. A culture with so much impact on the world can hardly be ignored. “The Year of the Dragon” suggests an energetic shift on the planet. The protective and powerful dragon symbolizes wisdom and prosperity. Generous, benevolent, and lucky, the dragon can transform into any type of creature and overcome all challenges.

Taming and transforming the multiple myeloma beast takes more than a dragon, but inspiration helps. Sometimes the dreams that occur during sleep…

Throughout 2011, The Myeloma Beacon published many articles that serve as helpful resources for multiple myeloma patients and others interested in myeloma.

These articles included interviews with, columns written by, and summaries of treatment guidelines from leading myeloma experts.  They also included articles providing helpful information about rare types of myeloma and exciting new treatment options that are being studied in clinical trials.

All these articles were published in addition to the Beacon’s coverage of the latest myeloma-related news and…

As The Beacon previously reported, Spanish researchers recently presented clinical trial results showing that active treatment may be beneficial for some smoldering multiple myeloma patients.

Specifically, the results of the study showed that high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma patients who received Revlimid plus dexametha­sone followed by Revlimid maintenance had a longer time to disease progression and better overall survival than patients who did not receive treatment (see related Beacon news).

To help Beacon readers put these results into perspective and better…

The most recent results of a Spanish Phase 3 clinical trial indicate that Revlimid in combination with dexamethasone delays disease progression in smoldering multiple myeloma patients who have a high risk of developing symptomatic disease.

Specifically, the results showed that high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma patients who received Revlimid plus dexamethasone had a longer time to disease progression and better overall survival than patients who did not receive treatment.

However, the Spanish researchers acknowledged that these results should be confirmed by…