The 48th annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) will take place Friday, June 1, through Tuesday, June 5, in Chicago.

More than 25,000 clinical specialists from all over the world are expected to attend the five-day meeting to discuss the current research in cancer treatment and care. The theme for this year’s meeting is “Collaborating to Conquer Cancer.”

The meeting will include many presentations and seminars focused specifically on multiple myeloma. The ASCO website currently lists nearly 50 myeloma-based presentations (included under “lymphoma and plasma cell…

The results of the three major clinical trials investigating Revlimid maintenance therapy were published yesterday in three separate articles in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The articles were accompanied by an editorial summarizing the study findings and discussing their significance for the treatment of multiple myeloma patients.

All three clinical trials involved newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients.  The patients in the trials first underwent initial treatment that in some cases included Revlimid (lenalidomide).  In two of the three trials, the initial treatment also included a stem cell transplant.…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier today issued an extensive update regarding the risk of developing a second cancer while being treated with Revlimid.

The update comes on the heels of a change the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made to the prescribing information for Revlimid (lenalidomide) in March of this year.

The change involved the addition of a warning that patients being treated with Revlimid have an increased risk of developing a second cancer (see related Beacon news).

Today’s update by the FDA includes more specific details…

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has added a warning to the prescribing information for Revlimid stating that patients being treated with the drug have an increased risk of developing a second cancer.

The warning has been added in two parts of the prescribing information.

In the upfront ‘Warnings and Precautions’ section, text has been included stating that “Higher incidences of SPM [second primary malignancies] were observed in controlled trials of patients with multiple myeloma receiving Revlimid.”

Later in the document, the warning is expanded to explain that studies have shown…

On the fourth and final day of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 annual meeting, there was one session in the morning with a number of important myeloma-related presentations.

The key findings of those presentations are summarized in this article.

Treatment Of High-Risk Smoldering Myeloma

Dr. María-Victoria Mateos from the University Hospital in Salamanca, Spain, kicked off the session.

She gave a presentation reviewing a Phase 3 trial she and her colleagues are conducting on the treatment of high-risk smoldering myeloma patients with Revlimid (lenalidomide) and dexamethasone…