Center of Excellence Media's Blog

It has been a whirlwind 2 weeks covering EHA in London and ICML in Lugano. I have been amazed at the diversity in treatment strategies practiced by clinicians worldwide, especially comparing the US and Europe, as well as among European practitioners. But one central theme that spans all countries as well as all hematologic malignancies, is the importance of molecular profiling.

A special session was added to the 13th IMW in response to the recently observed rise in incidence of secondary malignancies in patients who have been treated for MM, especially those that have received long term maintenance therapy with IMids. This is an emerging issue in several clinical trials, including trials from the French and Italian groups.  There were not a lot of answers, but rather more questions. Pooled patient analyses from several trials were presented, as well as subset analysis of others.  The bottom line is: longer term follow up is needed. 

Today was another fantastic morning of data and discussion at IMW. This morning's session, Newly Diagnosed Myeloma > 65 Years of Age, Facts and Questions was kicked off by S. Vincent Rajkumar's discussion on his personal view of treatment strategies in this population. This was followed by an update from all of the cooperative groups on the important questions being examined in their ongoing clinical trials.