As the myeloma community continues to investigate whether stem cell transplantation or novel agents is the best way to treat newly diagnosed myeloma patients, recent results from a Phase 3 clinical trial indicate that stem cell transplantation may lead to longer disease-free survival.

The results from this study show that more multiple myeloma patients who received a stem cell transplant were alive and disease-free after 24 months compared to patients treated with Revlimid in combination with conventional chemotherapy.

The transplanted patients, however, also experienced more severe side effects compared to…

Results of a Phase 2 clinical trial show that elotuzumab in combination with Revlimid and low-dose dexamethasone is safe and effective in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients.

“Elotuzumab in combination with Revlimid and low-dose dexamethasone has a very high response rate,” said Dr. Philippe Moreau from the University Hospital in Nantes, France, when he presented the findings at the 47^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday.

“[The combination] seems to be superior to Revlimid plus high-dose dexamethasone,” he added.

In a summary talk about potential…

Results of a Phase 1 clinical trial suggest that the investigational drug LY2127399 in combination with Velcade is safe and effective enough to deserve further study as a potential treatment for multiple myeloma.

“We are very encouraged by these results and would like to move this forward to a randomized trial comparing LY2127399 and Velcade with Velcade alone,” said Dr. Noopur Raje, from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute when she presented these findings at the 47^th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) on Sunday.

Dr. Nikhil Munshi from…

The results from a clinical trial, called the ZMAX trial, suggest that administering Zometa intravenously over a longer period does not increase the drug’s safety compared to shorter infusion times.

Dr. James Berenson, from Berenson Oncology and lead author of the study, stated in email correspondence with The Myeloma Beacon that he hopes these study results will reassure patients that a 15-minute infusion time is safe.  Ultimately, the study authors suggested that infusion duration should be based on individual patient considerations.

Zometa (zoledronic acid) is an intravenous bisphosphonate that reduces…

Spanish researchers recently published long-term follow-up results confirming that a complete response following stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma patients increases overall and progression-free survival compared to a very good or partial response.

Treatment with high-dose chemotherapy followed by stem cell transplantation is a standard therapeutic approach for younger, newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients. There has been some debate among researchers, however, as to whether the quality of response following transplantation can predict patient outcome.

In 2000, the same group of researchers published results demonstrating that complete response should be…