The results of a small Phase 1 clinical trial demonstrate that BT-062, a new drug specifically targeting multiple myeloma cells, shows activity and is tolerable in heavily pretreated multiple myeloma patients.

Dr. Sundar Jagannath of the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City presented the results at the 2011 American Society of Hematology (ASH) conference in San Diego last month.

Based on the favorable safety and activity of BT-062, a Phase 1/2 clinical trial has been initiated and is currently recruiting patients. It will use a more…

Interim results from a Phase 2 study show that panobinostat may be clinically beneficial for certain multiple myeloma patients with advanced disease.

In the study, patients who had relapsed and were no longer responsive to Velcade-based treatments received panobinostat in combination with Velcade and dexamethasone.

Although the results generally are being viewed as favorable, “It is hard to interpret them because you don’t really know how the patients would have done with just Velcade and dexamethasone alone,” explained Dr. Leif Bergsagel, a myeloma specialist from the Mayo Clinic in Arizona,…

Today, my husband Peter and I plan to “undecorate,” our household term for putting all the Christmas finery away.  It’s a bittersweet occasion, as I am one obsessed with the Christmas tree.  I take great joy in looking at our ornaments, so many of which hold very happy memories.

This year in particular I enjoyed placing the ornaments my sister Deana and I collected in December 1998, when she accompanied me on a work trip to Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and Munich.  We visited numerous Christmas markets in these cities –…

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 understand their implications, The Beacon asked myeloma specialist Dr. Ola…

In the summer of 2009, six months before being diagnosed with multiple myeloma, my wife and I toured the Crater Lake area in Oregon by bicycle. 

The group we were in was small — only four bikers — as a third couple had bailed at the last minute, and we were in (hopefully) the deepest part of the Great Recession.  

On the last morning of the week-long trip, we began a 45-mile descent to our luncheon spot.  We were biking on isolated two-lane back roads, hemmed in by green forests.  Forestfires…