Congratulations on your very well-deserved appointment to The New Zealand Order of Merit for your services to Haematology! Dr Ken Romeril is a consultant physician/haematologist. Dr Ken Romeril (Ken) founded the charitable trust Myeloma New Zealand, of which he has been CEO since 2016, continuing in this role following retirement from clinical practice. He is the...Continue Reading
As we continue to understand more about the biology of multiple myeloma (MM) and the number of treatment options for patients with MM continues to expand, keeping track of the current standard of care practices and emerging new treatment strategies has become even more challenging. In this commentary, we will summarize our thoughts on how...Continue Reading
The Cancer Control Agency’s analysis of the gap between Australia and New Zealand in funding 18 selected medicines with substantial clinical benefit is a welcome way of drawing attention to the plight of NZ cancer patients desperate for treatments that are funded across the Tasman, but not here, says Myeloma NZ Chief Executive Dr Ken...Continue Reading
The Access Criteria for the oral antiviral COVID-19 treatments, nirmatrelvir with ritonavir (Paxlovid) and molnupiravir (Lagevrio) has been announced. These Access Criteria have been developed with the advice of clinical expert advisors. Supply of the oral treatments will be arriving throughout 2022 and the criteria have been designed to help support prescribers to target available...Continue Reading
After New Year’s Honours for his work, he now fears could die without seeing a single new myeloma-fighting drug added to those funded by Pharmac, the government drug-buying agency he labels as “glacial”. Read more here: Honoured haematologist and HIV pioneer fears he won’t see action from ‘glacial’ Pharmac in his lifetime | Stuff.co.nzContinue Reading
This link here: Te Aho o Te Kahu – Cancer during COVID-19 contains information for patients and whānau with cancer. Cancer treatment continues at all phases of the Ministry of Health’s Omicron Response Plan.Continue Reading
In a radio interview today, Health Minister Andrew Little said the final Pharmac Review report will be publicised “in a matter of a few weeks.”The Pharmac Review panel was expected to hand over the final report to Minister Little by 28 February 2022 – he received it last week.Click below to listen to the interview on...Continue Reading
Last Thursday 24 February the ICBCC Policy Strategy Working Group met to discuss on the Policy Strategy to address the specific impact of the pandemic on immunocompromised blood cancer patients (both acute and chronic) in a workshop-style setting. The meeting was facilitated by our partner Patvocates. During the 2 hour workshop the group managed to define...Continue Reading
The primary analysis of the ICARIA-MM study showed significant improvement in progression-free survival with addition of isatuximab to pomalidomide–dexamethasone in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma. Here, we report a prespecified updated overall survival analysis at 24 months after the primary analysis. Methods In this randomised, multicentre, open-label, phase 3 study adult patients (aged ≥18 years) with relapsed...Continue Reading
