Today was the final morning at ASH with presentations from 7:30 am - 9 am. We heard about treatments with Bendamustine-Vel-dx (good results) as well as higher dose of Carfilzomib with longer infusion time (better response but it comes with higher toxicity). There was also an interesting study looking at infection rates for MM patients, who are 7 times more likely to get infections compare with non-MM folks and 12 times higher in the first year after diagnosis...so we need to be careful.
For patients diagnosed with kidney involvement (about 17% of us), novel therapies (Thal, Rev, Vel, Cfz, Pom...) has provided survival improvement. [BTW, many of these drugs are not so "novel" anymore. I was in a Thalidomide trial early '98.& Wonder why that name sticks around.]
After flying home, I'll be summarizing my results (typically a 6 pg write-up) and present them to our SF Bay Area MM support group. I'm always happy to email it to others...just let me know if you want it.
Hope my blog has been informative, and I'm already looking forward to next year's ASH Dec 7-10 in New Orleans.
Stay well and informed.
Jack
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