Late last night I promised you more detail and information about myeloma related immunotherapies from Chicago at ASCO.

Three were represented here at ASCO on Monday:  Elotuzumab, siltuximuab and daratumumab.

I already reported on daratumumab Tuesday:

Anyone ever heard of daratumumab?

Lots of helpful information and links there.  Preliminary results looked pretty good!

Let’s move-on to siltuximab.

Adding siltuximab to Velcade slightly increase the effectiveness of therapy.  But a significant higher risk of experiencing serious complications makes this a likely;  “Let’s try something else.”  Maybe combining it with Revlimid or Thalomid?

You can read the ABSTRACT for details if you like…

Now on to elotuzumab.

A Bristol-Myers Squibb drug (the company that makes the melanoma immuno drug, Yervoy and several new antibody based compounds), elotuzumab is a monoclonal antibody that I have written a lot about before.  As a matter of fact, I feature it in my new book, New Multiple Myeloma Therapies from a patient’s perspective, which is being published this month.  I’m so excited!

Here are a few links to stories I have posted on this site and MyelomaNews.com recently:

Monoclonal antibody promising in multiple myeloma

More positive feedback about elotuzumab I found on Medicalxpress.com…

Elotuzumab/Velcade hits big numbers in small study

Another new anti-myeloma antibody continues to impress

There are literally dozens of others.  Go to the dark grey query bar, located along the black strip at the top of my home page and type-in “elotuzumab.  I had two pages worth of posts pop-up!

But back to the study presented last Monday.  Dr. Philippe Moreau–who I have heard speak a dozen times–spoke about updated results from a Phase 2 Revlimid combo study.

Less than 100 patients participated.  All used elotuzumab.  One half recieveing a 10 mg dose, the other half a 20 mg dose.

Believe it or not, patients receiving the lower dose did much better.  The study used patients who had undergone some therapy, but they weren’t “heavily treated” or considered “refractory” to one or more drugs like many of the studies presented here.  So one would expect the numbers to be good–and they were!

92% of the 10 mg dosed patients responded.  And again, as one might expect, the response lasted a long time for most of the patients, which is typical of the majority of myeloma patients who are undergoing serious therapy early in their myeloma cycle.  The trial has only been going on for 18 months or so.  Median progression free survival still had not been reached at 17+ months–which is a good thing!

Here’s a link back to the actual abstract:

A randomized phase II study of elotuzumab with lenalidomide and low-dose dexamethasone in patients with relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma

Now, I wonder if elotuzumab can’t be bound together with an anti-myeloma drug like Cytoxan or melphalan to deliver a real knock-out punch–similar to the breast cancer “gamechanger” that I have been reporting on–the Roche drug, T-DM1.  More about that in my three part series about immunotherapy starting tomorrow.

Listen.  Like I mentioned a few days ago, there is an enormous world of oncology outside the myeloma specific world we live in.

That reality hits you hard at a huge conference like ASCO.  Myeloma–heck, even blood cancers in general–are just a small blip here.  You wouldn’t even notice it if you didn’t know what to look for.  But that isn’t all bad.

Since myeloma is so easy to attack early-on, I believe you will see our researchers investigating more and more compounds that are used against other, unrelated cancers.

Glad I’m starting to do more writing assignments about other forms of cancer.  It opens my eyes to some far-out possibilities that may end-up not being so “far-out” at all.

Should help my myeloma writing and reporting.  But don’t worry;  myeloma specific I shall stay!  And I know, I know.  More about me, right?

Fine.  I feel pretty good, all things considered.  I’m back home and cleaning the refrigerator–which of course broke-down when I was traveling.  Isn’t that always the way it goes?

But repair man has come and gone and it’s working again.

Do you really want me to blog more about me?  Isn’t a three part series about how immunotherapies may be that elusive “cure” we have been looking for (It starts tomorrow) more exciting?  I’m just saying…

Feel good and keep smiling!  Pat