Lenalidomide maintenance treatment demonstrates significant overall survival benefit following HDT-ASCT

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…

SKY92 validated as a useful prognostic tool for myeloma patients

A study, published recently in Clinical Lymphoma, Myeloma and Leukemia, has further validated the use of the SKY92 gene expression signature as a potentially valuable prognostic tool to evaluate myeloma patients. Compared with seven other gene expression profiling classifiers including UAMS 70, UAMS 80 and IFM15, the researchers found that SKY92 identified the largest proportion (21%)…

Supportive treatments

The Role of Low-dose Anti-thymocyte Globulin as Standard Prophylaxis in Mismatched and Matched Unrelated Hematopoietic Peripheral Stem Cell Transplantation for Hematologic Malignancies. Sakellari I et al. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2017 Jun 29. pii: S2152-2650(17)30096-4. doi: 10.1016/j.clml.2017.06.008. [Epub ahead of print]. Allogeneic Blood or Marrow Transplantation with Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide as Graft-Versus-Host Disease Prophylaxis in Multiple Myeloma. Ghosh N et al. Biol Blood Marrow…

General

Longitudinal validity and reliability of the Myeloma Patient Outcome Scale (MyPOS) was established using traditional, generalizability and Rasch psychometric methods. Ramsenthaler C et al. Qual Life Res. 2017 Jul 27. doi: 10.1007/s11136-017-1660-z. [Epub ahead of print]. The Experience of Myeloma Caregivers During Home-Based Oral Chemotherapy Treatment: A Qualitative Study. Morris M et al. Semin Oncol Nurs. 2017 Jul 24. pii: S0749-2081(17)30045-1. doi: 10.1016/j.soncn.2017.05.010. [Epub ahead…

Current treatments

Efficacy and Safety of Bortezomib Maintenance in Patients with Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma: A Meta-Analysis. Sun CY et al. Biosci Rep. 2017 Jul 13. pii: BSR20170304. doi: 10.1042/BSR20170304. [Epub ahead of print]. Targeting complete response with upfront bortezomib consolidation versus observation after the achievement of complete response following autologous transplantation for multiple myeloma(TUBA study). Nakasone H et al. Hematol Oncol. 2017 Jul 6.…

Complications of myeloma and its treatments

Immunoglobulin A nephropathy in a patient with IgG kappa light-chain myeloma. Chandra A et al. Saudi J Kidney Dis Transpl. 2017 Jul-Aug;28(4):937-941. Priapism with penile gangrene: An unusual presentation of multiple myeloma. Panwar VK et al. Indian J Urol. 2017 Jul-Sep;33(3):251-252. doi: 10.4103/iju.IJU_41_17. Increased corneal densitometry as a subclinical corneal change associated with multiple myeloma. Busch C et al. Eye (Lond). 2017 Jul 14. doi: 10.1038/eye.2017.132. [Epub…

General

Living with the burden of relapse in multiple myeloma from the patient and physician perspective. Hulin C et al. Leuk Res. 2017 May 31;59:75-84. doi: 10.1016/j.leukres.2017.05.019. [Epub ahead of print]. The impact of comorbidity on mortality in multiple myeloma: a Danish nationwide population-based study. Gregersen H et al. Cancer Med. 2017 Jun 22. doi: 10.1002/cam4.1128. [Epub ahead of print]. Recent advances in understanding multiple myeloma.…

Supportive treatments

Comparison of the CELLEX™ and UVAR-XTS™ closed-system extracorporeal photopheresis devices in the treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease. Whittle RM et al. J Clin Apher. 2017 Jun 13. doi: 10.1002/jca.21541. [Epub ahead of print]. Comparison of Operative Time with Conventional Fluoroscopy versus Spinal Neuronavigation in Instrumented Spinal Tumor Surgery. Miller JA et al. World Neurosurg. 2017 Jun 9. pii: S1878-8750(17)30908-7. doi: 10.1016/j.wneu.2017.06.016.…