These guidelines, produced by an expert panel on behalf of the European Myeloma Network (EMN), provide recommendations for the management of the most common complications of myeloma, including bone and kidney disease.
Results from a Myeloma UK study, in which myeloma patients participated in a survey to determine individual preferences for treatment outcomes, have been published in The Oncologist. The survey, which was based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) and swing weighting, asked patients to state their preference for the following outcomes of treatment; an increase in…
Amgen has announced that its Phase III trial, ARROW, has achieved its primary endpoint of improving progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with relapsed or refractory myeloma. The study compared the effect of giving patients a higher dose of carfilzomib (Kyprolis®) once a week, compared to a smaller dose twice a week, together with dexamethasone. The…
The Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) has approved the use of daratumumab (Darzalex®) monotherapy as a fourth line treatment option for relapsed and refractory myeloma patients in Scotland, who have previously received treatment with a proteasome inhibitor and immunomodulatory drug. This decision is based on the pooled analysis of results from two clinical trials, MMY2002 and…
A study, funded by Myeloma UK, has identified a link between overexpression of EZH2 and high risk myeloma. The results, published in the Blood Cancer Journal, demonstrate that patients with high levels of EZH2 expression had shorter overall survival and response to treatment compared to patients with low levels of EZH2 expression, regardless of treatment.…
Plasma Cell Infiltration of the Kidney as a Manifestation of Myeloma: A Report of Three Cases. Kaur T et al. Indian J Nephrol. 2017 Sep-Oct;27(5):395-398. doi: 10.4103/ijn.IJN_215_16. Incidence of Contrast-Induced Nephropathy in Patients with Multiple Myeloma Undergoing Contrast-Enhanced Procedures. Crowley MP et al. Pathol Oncol Res. 2017 Sep 13. doi: 10.1007/s12253-017-0300-9. [Epub ahead of print]. Multiple Myeloma Presenting as Massive Amyloid Deposition in a Parathyroid…
A recent study, conducted by the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG), has demonstrated the benefits of whole body computed tomography (WBCT) compared to conventional skeletal survey (CSS) for identifying osteolytic lesions in myeloma. The study, published in Blood Cancer Journal, found that WBCT is more sensitive than CSS in detecting skeletal lesions, with 20-25% patients…
A study, funded by Myeloma UK, has demonstrated that neutral tumour evolution in myeloma is associated with poorer prognosis. Neutral evolution is the term used to describe evolution caused by random genetic mutations and are normally considered to be neither beneficial nor detrimental to survival. However, in this study, such tumours conferred a worse prognosis…
This NICE guidance outlines recommendations for children and adults with suspected cancer, including primary care investigations and referral recommendations to secondary care.
Meta-analysis of results from three randomised control trials has demonstrated that maintenance treatment with lenalidomide (Revlimid®) following high-dose therapy and autologous stem cell transplantation (HDT-ASCT) in newly diagnosed myeloma patients has a significant overall survival (OS) benefit. Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the results of this meta-analysis, which used data pooled from the…