What an amazing and exciting day that kicked off the 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition. ASH allows doctors from around the world to present various studies happening within the myeloma community. It is truly amazing to see all of the developments within this area.
In addition, I am so grateful that the meeting has a virtual component. The virtual element allows me to experience the meeting without missing a beat! If I had to attend in person, I would not be able to go. By still permitting a virtual platform, I’m able to see all the wonderful presentations that are full of the latest and greatest updates on myeloma. What a great opportunity!
Furthermore, I want to thank the IMF for this occasion. By attending ASH, I can gain more knowledge, which I can then provide to the members of the MM Families Virtual Support Group. https://www.myeloma.org/support-group/mm-families The MM Families Virtual Support group empowers myeloma patients and their caregivers who have young children. By hearing all this newfound knowledge, I hope to encourage them on their journey!
To kick off the first day of ASH, the IMF led a wonderful discussion panel which focused on the following: High-Risk Smoldering Patients; Therapeutic Strategies for Newly Diagnosed Myeloma Patients Both Eligible for Transplant and Not Eligible for Transplant; Tailoring Therapies for First Relapse; Managing Triple-Class Refractory Myeloma, and BCMA-Targeted Therapies.
It was so interesting to hear all the discussions and studies on these various topics. One of the most interesting items that I learned was the development in treating high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM). Wow! How times have changed! While there is still debate on whether to treat SMM or take the “watch and wait” approach, some of the new studies showed so much promise in treating myeloma early. There was also some interesting data on high-risk patients and tandem transplants, as well as discussion between triplet and quadruplet therapies. In addition, there are so many interesting new studies relating to CAR T.
On December 12, 2021, there were 545 open and recruiting clinical trials on the clinicaltrials.gov website. There are over 800 #ASH21 abstracts with the word #myeloma in them. There was a four-fold increase in Google’s keyword trend for #myeloma after the death of Secretary of State General Colin L. Powell. Over 750,000 men, women, and children have died in the US and over 5 million worldwide due to the #COVID19 pandemic. Delta and Omicron COVID variants continue to humble and teach us that collaboration is key to overcoming.
Google Keyword Search Trend for Myeloma
The FDA approved the first BCMA-targeted CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma, Abecma® (idecabtagene vicleucel). The hopeful approval for the second CAR T, cilta-cel, had been delayed by three months but is expected in Q1 of 2022.
This year’s ASH will highlight the progress of several critical research:
MGUS and SMM – Is screening the way to go? What is the psychological impact of “knowing early?” Are African Americans at a higher risk for MGUS and as a result, myeloma? What is the effect of high-dose treatment for SMM patients?
MRD-guided therapy – Can we use MRD to pause treatment? What is the impact of quadruplets on MRD?
CAR T, BCMA therapies – What are the outcomes of phase 1/2 or 2/3 studies for CAR T and BCMA, such as teclistamab, and others that don’t even have a name yet? How about off-the-shelf CAR Ts to alleviate collection and production issues of CAR Ts?
Maintenance – Is maintenance the way to go? Which single or double is best for maintenance? How about QOL, affordability, and impact on subsequent therapies?
The IMF teams will be busy at ASH and will be facilitating either virtual or hybrid meetings:
The Friday IMF Satellite Symposium
International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) Breakfast
IMWG Conference Series
Global Myeloma Action Network (GMAN) Summit
Best of ASH Conference
The IMF SGLs will be attending ASH virtually, so we won’t have that awkward moment of fist-bumping while someone else is extending a handshake!
Hey, all. Thanks for reading my blog. I am excited to join the International Myeloma Foundation’s (IMF) “Support Group Leaders (SGL) go to ASH” program and share updates from the meeting. I have lost track of how many years I have been attending with the IMF, but it has been more than 9 years, based on my Twitter anniversary.
The 63rd American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting will be held in Atlanta, GA from December 11 – 14, 2021, offering virtual attendance. The SGLs will attend virtually to reduce the risk of COVID-19 exposure. I’m very pleased with this approach, as I’m a big fan of safety, and “live tweeting” is easier from my desktop rather than my laptop.
We have all experienced a lot of changes in the past two years, as we live “through” a pandemic, or more accurately, live “within” a pandemic.
For some, you may have received your multiple myeloma diagnosis during this time, adding to the uncertainty of the times. Others may have had to delay or interrupt treatment as a result of the medical shortages and concern for infection.
For myself, it helped bring some things into focus. For the first 30 years of my career as an oncology nurse at Mayo Clinic-Rochester, I loved working in the area of blood and marrow transplant (BMT), working with all transplant-indicated hematologic disorders.
Multiple myeloma is the number one indication for autologous stem cell transplant, hence, my 15-year focus on this disease as a member of the IMF’s Nurse Leadership Board (NLB). Through all these years, I embraced the Mayo philosophy: “The needs of the patient come first”.
My volunteer activities as an SGL and working with the amazing members of the IMF NLB have added focus to patient empowerment through education.
In 2021, as I entered my 31st year as an oncology nurse, I made the transition from BMT Nurse Coordinator to the development of a new role, as a Myeloma Nurse Navigator. The vision of this role is three-fold: to create increased awareness of clinical trial participation; to empower patients through education; and to assist providers to enhance clinical efficiency, allowing for more focused time with the patient. Talk about the perfect role to meld my passions.
I am able to focus my professional time on the dynamic specialty of multiple myeloma while having improved focus on work/life balance, AND I am able to work from home. This balance has allowed me time to learn artistic painting, which has even influenced the most recent IMF NLB Patient Education presentation as shown in the symptom management section of Advances in Myeloma Treatments: What Patients & Caregivers Need to Know.
This role transition gives me a little different focus for my #ASH21 experience. I will have less focus on transplant, and more focus on specialty aspects of an already specialty diagnosis. I want to focus on the “one-off” versions of myeloma like extra-medullary disease (EMD), plasma cell leukemia (PCL), non-secretory and high risk variants and approaches to treatment.
To that end, I will focus on updates on pipeline combinations and targeted therapies that address novel targets and refractory disease, such as iberdomide and cereblon; venetoclax and t(11;14); and non-B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA) targets, to name a few. Also, I will (always have) focus on supportive care in all phases of the diagnosis as this is key to living well with myeloma.
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