The recent ASH meeting in San Diego included a huge amount of information relevant to myeloma. To provide some perspective on what this means for myeloma patients, the IMF has invited two reviews of the data from Dr. Morie Gertz and Dr. Robert Orlowski, as well as making available interviews and slide presentations from presenters at the ASH meeting.

At this year’s meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego, many research results were presented. Most of them were interesting and a few were important. The definitions of interesting and important have changed in recent years. Important for myeloma patients means there is a step towards new, better, or safer treatment. Interesting means there is hope for that important step, soon. In the past such benefit from “important” or “interesting” research was rare and too much to hope for. This revolution in myeloma research in the past 5 or 6 years is driven by results, that is, new treatments that are making a difference.

The details from this year’s ASH meeting, therefore, provide great promise for today and the near future. This year, many of the ASH presenters were interviewed by the IMF. The interviews and the attached slide presentations provide great insights into the current status of myeloma research.

AVAILABLE INTERVIEWS AND SLIDE PRESENTATIONS:

Therapies for Previously Untreated Patients

Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar

• Combination Therapy with CC-5013 (Lenalidomide; RevlimidTM) plus Dexamethasone (Rev/Dex) for Newly Diagnosed Myeloma
• A Randomized Phase III Trial of Thalidomide Plus Dexamethasone Vs Dexamethasone in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma (E1A00): A Trial Coordinated by the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group
  

Dr. Sundar Jagannath

• Bortezomib as First-Line Therapy in Patients with MM; A Multicenter Phase 2 Clinical Trial
  

Dr. Paul G. Richardson

• Phase 2 Clinical Trial of Single Agent Bortezomib in Patients with Previously Untreated Multiple Myeloma.
  

Prof. Thierry Facon

• Randomized Trial Comparing MP, MP-THAL and MEL100 for Newly Diagnosed Pts Aged 65-75 Years

Asst. Prof. Michael Wang

• VTD (Velcade, Thalidomide, Dexamethasone) as Primary Therapy for Newly-Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma.

Prof. Jesus San Miguel

• A Phase I/II National Multicenter Open-label Study of Bortezomib Plus Melphalan and Prednisone in Elderly Untreated Multiple Myeloma Patients
  

Prof. Meletios-Athanassios Dimeopoulos

• Primary Treatment with Pulsed Melphalan, Dexametha-sone, Thalidomide (MDT) for Symptomatic Patients with Multiple Myeloma Who Are 75 Years of Age or Older.
  

Prof. Morie A. Gertz

• A Randomized Phase III Trial of Thalidomide Plus Dexamethasone Versus Dexamethasone in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma (E1A00)
• A new trial (E4A03) just opening to look at Revlimid vs. Thalidomide and standard dose vs. lower dose Dexamethasone
  

Dr. Antonio Palumbo

• MPT vs MP: Interim Analysis Prospective Randomized Trial Newly Diagnosed Patients Age > 65 Years
  

Therapies for Relapsing Patients

Dr. Rubin Niesvizky

• Depsipeptide in the Treatment of Relapsed and Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A Prospective Evaluation of the Cell Cycle Depsipeptide in the Treatment of Relapsed and Refractory Multiple Myeloma: A Prospective Evaluation of the Cell Cycle
  

Dr. Antonio Palumbo

• Thal + Dex is Effective Salvage Regimen for Pts Relapsing After Autologous Transplant
  

Dr. Paul G. Richardson

• Bortezomib vs High-Dose Dexamethasone in Relapsed Multiple Myeloma: Results of a Large Randomized Phase 3 Study
  

New Agents, Supportive Care, Prognostic Factors, and Molecular Biology

Dr. Brian G.M. Durie

• Osteonecrosis of the Jaw In Myeloma:Time Dependent Correlation with AREDIA and ZOMETA Use
  

Prof. Heinz Ludwig

• Poorer Survival in Multiple Myeloma Correlates with Patients’ age and is Linked to a Higher Stage at Presentation but Prognostic Parameters Reflecting the Biology of the Myeloma Clone are not Associated with Age
  

Asst. Prof. Rafael Fonseca

• Clinical Implications of t(11;14)(q13;q32), t(4;14)(p16;q32) and -17p13 (p53) Deletions in Myeloma Patients Treated with High-Dose Therapy
  

Dr. Mohamad Hussein

• A Phase I, Multi-Dose Study of SGN-40 (anti-huCD40 mAb) in Patients with MM
  

Asst. Prof. William F. Matsui and Dr. Carol Ann Huff

• Antibody-Based Therapy Targeting Myeloma Stem Cells
  

Dr. Meral Beksac

• IL-101082-A and TNF-Alpha 238/308A Genotypes Are Associated with Earlier (Younger than 55) Onset of Multiple Myeloma
  

Prof. John DiPersio

• A Pilot Study Evaluating the Safety and Efficacy of AMD3100 for the Mobilization and Transplantation of HLA-Matched Sibling Donor Hematopoietic Stem Cells in Patients with Advanced Hematological Malignancies. MT