Here is some follow-up on a more well tested anti-myeloma antibody, Elotuzumab–the kind of therapy you will find featured in my new myeloma therapies book.

Of all the new combination drugs, the monoclonal antibody, elotuzumab, seems to excite myeloma experts most.

If your read Friday’s post about my emotional evening at the IMF’s International Jounalist event last week, you will probably recall how my roller-coaster “crashed down” after hearing about an unexpectedly short, 8 month overall survival (OS) benefit from using pomalidomid and dexamethasone after patients became refractory to Revlimid and Velcade.

I featured a number of links to important new therapy related news from ASH over the past few days at MyelomaNews.com.

I know, I know.  I’m falling behind!  I’m so busy collecting and analyzing newly released myeloma related research data, I have barely had time to write.

Yesterday I wrote about how fortunate I was to have received second opinions–via email–from two well know, well respected mutliple myeloma experts.

Yesterday I wrote about three anti-myeloma clinical studies involving carfilzomib, elotuzumab and panobinostat.

Once again, thank you for all of the emails I received with contact information for amyloidosis specialists that I could pass along to Bill and Diane.  The response was overwhelming!

A few more quick notes from ASCO before the first of a long running series about ways to improve peripheral neuropathy (PN) starts later today:

So much to cover here at ASCO and so little time.  My freelance assignment and book signing are finished.  Time to catch-up on ASCO related multiple myeloma news.

Yesterday I jump-started the pre-ASCO announcements about exciting research to be revealed in Chicago in two weeks, focusing on elotuzumab. 

The American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) is the largest cancer related conference in the world. 

The Myeloma Beacon ran an excellent review of new anti-myeloma therapies which are in late stages of development: 

Happy New Year! I wanted to share my multiple myeloma research and drug company “wish list” with my fellow patients and caregivers today.

It is always interesting to see how each multiple myeloma related publication or organization views news coming out of a large conference like ASH.

Elotuzumab is one of the promising new combo drugs being studied to enhance the effectiveness of Revlimid and Velcade.  I have reported on elotuzumab before.  Here is a link to a story I did about the drug following last year’s ASH meetings in New Orleans.  I then another story about elotuzumab in April.  The Myeloma Beacon did a story about elotuzumab last June.  In November, Dr. Keith Stewart with Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, mentioned it in an interview about clinical study options for relapsed multiple myeloma patients, saying ”Monoclonal antibodies which specifically target myeloma cell or interfere with the growth of myeloma cells: Elotuzumab, particularly in combination with Revlimid-dex has shown encouraging results in early studies.”

As promised, here is the final installment of my three part report on the IMF’s ASH kick-off panel discussion Friday evening at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando:

Here is the link to Jessica Langholtz’s excellent article, Elotuzumab Combinations Show Encouraging Results In Multiple Myeloma (ASCO 2010) from today’s Myeloma Beacon.

Here are course notes from the class I completed yesterday, Optimal Management Strategies and Novel Agents in Multiple Myeloma, specifically the section about clinical trials and new drug combination strategies:

I didn’t hear much about antibody research at this year’s ASH.  I have fielded a number of questions recently about the use of antibodies for treating multiple myeloma.  This article about this drug company sponsored study should help shed some light on this potentially promising treatment thread from HealthNewsDigest.com:
New Treatment for Multiple Myeloma Shows Promise
Dec 15, 2009 – 3:29:48 PM


(HealthNewsDigest.com) – ATLANTA — A new approach to treating multiple myeloma shows high response rates in preliminary clinical studies, according to results presented last week at the American Society for Hematology meeting in New Orleans.