Four clinical trials presented at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 annual meeting in San Diego last month suggest that Zolinza, in combination with a number of approved myeloma drugs, may be a treatment option for relapsed and treatment-resistant multiple myeloma patients.

However, results of a key Phase 3 trial involving the drug were disappointing, and they call into question whether the drug will receive formal FDA approval as a treatment for myeloma.

Zolinza (vorinostat), which is marketed by the U.S. pharmaceutical company Merck (NYSE: MRK), is an oral…

It has been ten days since the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) came to a close.

Since the meeting started, The Beacon has been providing detailed coverage in the form of discussion forum postings, daily updates, and in-depth articles about key research findings.

In this and The Beacon’s next article about the meeting, however, the per­spective changes a bit.

The focus shifts to the bigger picture — to questions like: “What was the impact of the…

Yesterday was the third day of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 Annual Meeting in San Diego, and it was packed full with multiple myeloma-related presentations. Presentations started early in the morning and continued through the afternoon.

The morning presentations about potential new myeloma therapies will be covered in this update, and presentations from the rest of the day will be covered in additional updates.

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During the first talk of the day, Dr. Paul Richardson from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston presented results from a Phase 1…

Yesterday was the first day of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) 2011 annual meeting, which is being held in San Diego.

Although the day featured no oral presentations of new myeloma-related research, it started with an interesting educational session focused on multiple myeloma.

There also were a number of poster presentations during the day summarizing important new research findings.

The educational session in the morning featured three presentations by leading myeloma specialists.

Induction Therapy And Maintenance Treatment

The first presentation was by Dr. Donna Reece of the Princess Margaret…

Earlier this year, an international group of myeloma experts published a review of ongoing research into new myeloma treatments.  This review not only described a wide range of potential new myeloma treatments, but also included the experts’ thoughts on where research into new treatments should go in the future.

Given the recent new drug application for carfilzomib and the upcoming annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology — which undoubtedly will host discussions of many potential new myeloma treatments — it seems an appropriate time to go back to the…