April 7, 2026 Rapid Novor Inc., developer of the EasyM® blood-based minimal residual disease (MRD) test for multiple myeloma, today announced the completion of patient enrollment in its Canadian prospective clinical study. The study is evaluating the clinical utility of EasyM® for MRD monitoring in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM). A [...]
Introduction Ciltacabtagene Autoleucel (cilta-cel) produces high response rates in multiple myeloma (MM), but most patients eventually relapse, emphasizing the need for sensitive, frequent, and reliable minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring. Traditional bone marrow-based MRD assessments face multiple challenges: they can miss disease due to spatial heterogeneity, suffer from hemodilution, are difficult to [...]
Introduction Minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity is a key prognostic marker in multiple myeloma (MM), strongly associated with improved progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Current MRD assessments rely on next-generation sequencing (NGS) or next-generation flow cytometry (NGF) from bone marrow, which are invasive and may miss disease due to patchy [...]
March 10, 2026 Rapid Novor Inc., a Canadian biotechnology leader, announced today that its diagnostic laboratory has received a provisional license from the Ontario Ministry of Health (MOH) for its EasyM® assay, enabling the company to begin testing patients in Canada. This milestone represents the first time highly sensitive measurable residual disease (MRD) monitoring [...]
Introduction Minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity is a critical prognostic factor in multiple myeloma (MM), but conventional monitoring relies on invasive bone marrow (BM) testing and may miss disease due to spatial heterogeneity. EasyM is a mass spectrometry-based blood assay that tracks patient-specific M-protein peptides in peripheral blood, enabling frequent, non-invasive MRD [...]
Introduction Minimal residual disease (MRD) testing is the strongest prognostic metric for multiple myeloma (MM). By detecting even the smallest traces of disease, MRD offers a highly sensitive measure of treatment response and even goes beyond traditional remission criteria. Clinicians are now wondering how MRD can help shape clinical decision making in MM, especially [...]
Introduction Multiple myeloma is cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell found mainly in the bone marrow. Normal plasma cells are responsible for producing a mixture of many types of antibodies to protect your body against infections. In multiple myeloma, the abnormal plasma cells multiply uncontrollably and produce large [...]
Introduction Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that forms in plasma cells. Plasma cells, also known as plasmacytes, are a type of white blood cell located in the bone marrow that produce antibodies to fight infections. While the general diagnosis is known as "multiple myeloma", it actually comes in various [...]
Introduction Once initial treatment of multiple myeloma is complete, maintenance therapy, often involving lenalidomide or proteasome inhibitors, is the standard of care. However, maintenance therapy can cause a number of negative side effects, such as toxicity, thereby reducing quality of life. Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a key predictor of outcomes in [...]
Introduction In April 2024, the U.S. FDA’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) unanimously (12–0) voted to accept minimal residual disease (MRD) negativity as a primary endpoint in multiple myeloma (MM) clinical trials seeking accelerated approval. This marks a regulatory shift, aiming to speed up the availability of new treatments. The decision stems [...]
Introduction Minimal residual disease (MRD) is a critical prognostic indicator in multiple myeloma, typically assessed using invasive bone marrow-based assays. However, these methods have shown limited success when applied to blood. Next-generation flow (NGF) is mainly useful in patients with high levels of circulating disease, which is a phenomenon that has been [...]
Introduction As detection technology and therapeutics have improved, minimal residual disease (MRD) has become a pivotal prognostic marker in multiple myeloma (MM), particularly for predicting progression free and overall survival. In 2024, the FDA consensus is that MRD negativity can be used as a clinical trial endpoint. This shift is driving innovation [...]