New drug shows potential for Blood Cancer

A two-pronged immune-boosting drug could provide new hope for people stricken with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, according to clinical trial findings.
The experimental drug, Elotuzumab, reduced the risk of cancer progression and death by 30 percent when doctors combined it with the standard two-drug therapy for multiple myeloma, researchers found.
Elotuzumab works against this relatively rare cancer through a dual mechanism, said senior study author Dr. Sagar Lonial. It makes cancer cells vulnerable to immune attack, and also enhances the immune system's ability to kill cancer.
"It's a bit of a double-whammy," said Lonial, executive vice chair of hematology and oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
Patients receiving the three-drug elotuzumab cocktail did not seem to suffer an increase in side effects, compared with those who took the two-drug standard regimen.
Elotuzumab is being developed by Bristol-Meyers Squibb and AbbVie Pharmaceuticals, which helped fund the study.