The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF)—supporting research and providing education, advocacy and support for myeloma patients, families, researchers and physicians—today said newly published data may provide a possible genetic link between environmental toxins and bone disease in multiple myeloma.

ZOLINZA® (vorinostat) in Combination with Bortezomib Showed Clinical Response in Early Investigational Studies of Patients with Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma

Mayo Clinic researchers have found that a new combination of medications designed to maximize immune functions improved or stabilized multiple myeloma for 76 percent of patients who had relapsed after previous treatment.

A new study by researchers at The Medical College of Wisconsin Cancer Center Milwaukee, has found that African Americans and whites have identical survival rates after undergoing autologous (self donor) bone marrow transplant treatment for a common cancer of the bone marrow (multiple myeloma).

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a cancer of plasma cells that affects approximately 3 in 100,000 people each year. Although there is no cure for this disease, researchers have developed treatments that help relieve pain, control complications, and slow the progress of MM in many patients.

Roy Richard Scheider, best known for his role as police chief Martin Brody in the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, died yesterday at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital while receiving treatment for Multiple Myeloma, a form of cancer that affects blood cells. He died of complications from the disease, said Leslie Taylor, a university spokeswoman.

Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have evidence that cancer stem cells for multiple myeloma share many properties with normal stem cells and have multiple ways of resisting chemotherapy and other treatments.

Mayo Clinic researchers today presented results of a phase II trial of myeloma induction therapy -- a first step therapy designed to reduce cancer cells numbers -- with cyclophosphamide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone (Cybor-D) showing an improved response over the traditional lenalidomide-dexamethasone (L-Dex) therapy.

Results from two investigational Phase I trials of ZOLINZA® (vorinostat) in combination with bortezomib provide preliminary anti-tumor activity in patients with relapsed and/or refractory multiple myeloma. Data from one study showed that 10 of 21 (48 percent) evaluable patients had a partial or minimal response from the ZOLINZA and bortezomib combination treatment.

Results of Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Phase III clinical trial E4A03, for multiple myeloma, showing significantly better overall survival with lenalidomide plus low-dose dexamethasone therapy compared to lenalidomide plus high-dose dexamethasone, were reported today by S. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D. at the American Society of Hematology’s annual meeting.

Pairing a new thalidomide derivative with a steroid slows progress of multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer, and prolongs the lives of patients who have relapsed from previous treatment, researchers report in the Nov. 22 New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center of the University of Pennsylvania announced today that findings from two large, international clinical trials show unprecedented survival for patients with multiple myeloma, a cancer that occurs in the blood-making cells of bone marrow.