By Melba Newsome, KFF Health News

For more than a year, Diane Hunter, now 72, had been experiencing vague symptoms — pain in her spine and hips, nausea, exhaustion, thirst, and frequent urination. Her primary care physician had ruled out diabetes before finally chalking up her ailments to getting older.

But months of intense back pain eventually landed her in the emergency room, where a doctor suggested that Hunter might have multiple myeloma. Hunter’s first question was, “What is that?”

Related Articles

Stanford researchers link lupus to common virus in ‘breakthrough’ study

A closer look at the unapproved peptide injections promoted by influencers and celebrities

NIH funding cuts have affected over 74,000 people enrolled in experiments, a new report says

Novo cuts Wegovy prices, but doctors still see cost challenges for patients

FDA adds strongest warning to Sarepta gene therapy linked to 2 patient deaths

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that develops in bone marrow plasma cells, crowding out healthy blood cells and damaging the bones. It is one of the most common blood cancers — and the most diagnosed among African Americans. The mortality rate from multiple myeloma also is higher among African American patients than white people, with a number of studies showing that, in addition to disease biology, societal factors such as socioeconomic status and lack of access to health insurance or medical services delay timely diagnoses.

A belated diagnosis is what happened to Hunter, a Black woman in Montgomery, Alabama. She said her primary care doctor dismissed a recommendation from her endocrinologist to refer her to a hematologist after finding high protein counts in her blood. Then, she said, he also refused to order a bone marrow biopsy after the ER doctor suggested she might have multiple myeloma. Fed up, she said, she found a new doctor, got tested, and learned she indeed had the disease.

Monique Hartley-Brown, a multiple myeloma researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said Hunter’s experience is fairly common, particularly among Black patients who live in underserved communities.

“On average, patients see their primary doctor three times before being accurately diagnosed,” Hartley-Brown said. “The delay from symptom onset to diagnosis is even longer for Black Americans. Meanwhile, the disease is wreaking havoc — causing fractures, severe anemia, fatigue, weight loss, kidney problems.”

Black and Hispanic patients are also less likely to receive the newest therapies, according to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, and, when they do, they are more likely to do so later in the course of their disease than white patients. An analysis published in 2022 of racial and ethnic disparities in multiple myeloma drug approval trials submitted to the FDA concluded that Black patients made up only 4% of participants despite being roughly 20% of those living with the disease.

Now, even though significant progress has been made in understanding the biology of multiple myeloma and how to treat it, those racial gaps may grow larger amid federal cuts to cancer research and the backlash against diversity and inclusion efforts. While few multiple myeloma experts were willing to talk on the record about the impact of the funding cutbacks, Michael Andreini, president and CEO of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, has written that cuts to the National Institutes of Health and its National Cancer Institute put future innovations at risk.

“Even before these potential cuts, funding for myeloma lagged behind,” he wrote before the cuts were finalized. “The myeloma specific budget has decreased significantly. Myeloma is almost 2% of all cancers, yet receives less than 1% of the NCI’s budget.”

The disease is already hard to diagnose. Because multiple myeloma is usually diagnosed when a patient is over 65 (African Americans tend to be diagnosed five years younger, on average), common symptoms such as lower back pain and fatigue are often chalked up to just getting older.

Jim Washington of Charlotte, North Carolina, is back golfing after twice undergoing treatment for multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer. With premium health insurance and a concierge doctor, he was able to benefit from the latest treatments both times. (A.M. Stewart for KFF Health News/TNS)

That’s what happened to Jim Washington of Charlotte, North Carolina. He was 61 when excruciating hip pain brought his regular tennis games to a sudden stop.

“I figured I’d done something to injure myself,” Washington said. “But I’d been playing tennis all my life, and this pain was different from anything I’d ever felt before.”

Washington was fortunate to have a concierge doctor and premium health insurance. In quick succession, he underwent X-rays that revealed a lesion on his spine and received a referral to an oncologist, who identified a cancerous tumor. A subsequent biopsy and blood tests confirmed he had multiple myeloma.

Washington had weeks of high-dose chemotherapy, followed by what is known as an autologous stem cell transplant, which used his own stem cells to regrow healthy blood cells in his body. It was a grueling process that ultimately left him with a clean bill of health. For the next several years, his doctors monitored him closely, including conducting an annual bone marrow biopsy.

Before treatment, he said, myeloma had infiltrated 60% of his blood cells. The stem cell transplant brought those levels down to zero. After about five years, however, his multiple myeloma level had crept back up to 10% and required more treatment.

But Washington had closely followed the latest research and believed he had reason to be optimistic. The FDA had approved the first CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma in 2021.

Jim Washington of Charlotte, North Carolina, was fortunate to have a concierge doctor and premium health insurance when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, as he quickly received the latest treatment options. He has now undergone treatment twice for the blood cancer, which is especially common among Black Americans like him. “The prognosis is very positive, and I’m feeling good about where I am at this point,” he says. (A.M. Stewart for KFF Health News/TNS)

Hartley-Brown said the lack of Black patients in multiple myeloma drug approval trials raises concerns about whether the trial results are equally applicable to the Black population and may help explain why treatment advances have been less effective in Black patients.

She cited multiple causes for the low trial participation rate, including historical distrust of the medical establishment and a lack of available clinical trials. “If you are living in an underserved or underrepresented area, the hospital or community doctor may not have clinical trials available, or that patient may have limitations getting to that location affiliated with the clinical trial,” she said.

Washington, a Black patient, appears to have avoided this trap, having benefited from the latest treatments both times. In January, he began six weeks of chemotherapy with a three-drug combination of Velcade, Darzalex, and dexamethasone before undergoing CAR T-cell therapy.

For that, doctors collected Washington’s T cells, a type of white blood cell, and genetically modified them to better recognize and destroy the cancer cells before reinfusing them into his body. He didn’t require hospitalization post-transplant and could do daily blood draws at home. His energy levels were much higher than during his first treatment.

“I’ve been in a very privileged position,” Washington said. “The prognosis is very positive, and I’m feeling good about where I am at this point.”

Hunter, too, considers herself lucky despite receiving a delayed diagnosis. After her diagnosis in January 2017, she underwent five months of immunotherapy with a three-drug combination (Revlimid, Velcade, and dexamethasone) followed by a successful stem cell transplant and two weeks in the hospital. She has been in remission since July 2017.

Hunter, now a support group co-leader and patient advocate, said that stories like Washington’s and her own provide hope despite the research cuts.

In the eight years since her treatment, she said, she’s seen the thinking around multiple myeloma — long described as a treatable but incurable disease — begin to shift as a growing subset of patients remain disease-free for many years. She said she has even met people living with the disease for 30 years.

“The word ‘cure’ is now being heard,” Hunter said.

©2025 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By STAN CHOE, Associated Press Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is holding steadier on Wednesday, for now at least, ahead of a couple huge tests for Wall Street.

Related Articles

A fourth tier of credit cards has begun to emerge

Ford recalls more than 200,000 Bronco and Bronco Sports for instrument panel failure

Quarterly profit slide at Target hints at a challenging holiday season for the retailer

Oak Park Heights ‘Taco Bell Mom’ Brenda Foley marks 30 years

Energy Department loans $1B to help finance the restart of nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% in early trading, coming off a four-day losing streak, its longest in nearly three months. It’s been shaky recently, not just day to day but also hour to hour, because of worries that stock prices have shot too high and that the Federal Reserve may not deliver as many revitalizing jolts through lower interest rates as expected.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 26 points, or 0.1%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.

Lowe’s helped lead the market and rose 3.7% after the home-improvement retailer reported a stronger profit for the summer than analysts expected. Constellation Energy climbed 3.6% after the U.S. Department of Energy said it’s lending $1 billion to help restart Constellation’s nuclear power plant at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island.

They helped balance against Target, which drifted between small losses and gains after reporting a stronger profit but also weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The retailer hinted that challenges may continue through the critical holiday shopping season.

But Wall Street’s focus remained squarely on Nvidia. Wall Street’s most influential stock climbed 2% to recover some of its loss for the month so far, which topped 10% on Tuesday. Traders are making their final moves before the chip company reports how much profit it made during the summer after trading ends for the day.

Much is riding on it.

Nvidia has grown to become the largest stock on Wall Street and briefly topped $5 trillion in value. That means its stock movements carry more weight on the S&P 500 than any other stock, and it can single-handedly steer the index’s direction some days.

It’s also become a bellwether for the broader frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology, because other companies are using its chips to ramp up their AI efforts. Palantir Technologies is helping customers to use AI, for example, while Amazon, Microsoft and others are pouring investments into AI data centers that will hopefully improve their productivity.

Worries have been rising that all the investment may not produce as much profit for companies as earlier hoped, and critics have been suggesting AI’s spectacular surge is similar to the bubble that enveloped dot-com stocks. That ultimately imploded in 2000 and dragged the S&P 500 down by nearly half.

Traders are also making their final moves ahead of a jobs report coming from the U.S. government on Thursday.

It will show many jobs employers created and destroyed in September, which earlier got delayed because of the government’s shutdown.

The job market has been slowing this year, enough that the Fed has already cut its main interest rate twice. Lower interest rates can give a boost to the economy and to prices for investments, but they also can worsen inflation. Some Fed officials have been hinting that they should take a pause on rate cuts at their next meeting in December, in part because inflation has stubbornly remained above the Fed’s 2% target.

What the Fed does is critical for the market because stock prices ran to records in part because of expectations for continued cuts to rates.

Treasury yields have been swinging in the bond market as traders rejigger their forecasts. The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 4.10% from 4.12% late Tuesday.

In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed amid mostly modest movements across Europe and Asia.

AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

DULUTH — Bill Watson’s 1985 Hobey Baker Memorial Award is up for auction, and is fetching bids closing in on $10,000.

Watson is the second of an NCAA-record six players from the University of Minnesota Duluth to win the most prestigious individual award in men’s college hockey, which is handed out every year during the Frozen Four to the most outstanding player in the NCAA.

As a junior forward from Powerview, Manitoba, Watson scored 49 goals and 60 assists for 109 points in 1984-85 while leading the Bulldogs to a second-consecutive NCAA Frozen Four appearance, as well as a WCHA championship.

Tom Kurvers was the first Bulldog to win the Hobey Baker, earning the award the year before in 1983-84. Watson said winning the Hobey in back-to-back seasons helped create a strong bond between him and Kurvers, who died in 2021 at the age of 58 from cancer.

Watson said Kurver’s passing put into perspective what’s most important to him from his time at UMD — his teammates, his friends and family. He’ll still be a Hobey Baker Award winner with or without the hardware.

“Some 40 years after it, what you cherish the most are your teammates,” Watson said. “For me, it’s not just my teammates, but my classmates — Jimmy Toninato, Matt Christensen, Guy Gosselin, Norm Maciver, Mark Odnokon. Those were my classmates. I so enjoy when we get together and see each other, and of course, when we get together with all our teammates from that era. That means more than anything. That’s what’s so special.”

Two versions of the 41.5-pound trophy are awarded each season — one to the individual winner and another to the school. Up for sale is Watson’s personal 1985 trophy, which includes his name engraved on the base.

Classic Auctions in Montreal, Quebec, is auctioning the trophy, with bids accepted through Dec. 2. The trophy is not in mint condition. According to the description, the gold-colored metal plate has some wear and it has separated from the acrylic base. It will need to be reglued, according to the listing.

Watson said the top and the base became separated shortly after he accepted the award while he was bringing it back to Duluth, and he just never got around to gluing it back together.

Marc Juteau, the president and founder of Classic Auctions Inc., said this is the first time a Hobey Baker Memorial Award has been offered for public sale. The Hobey Baker Memorial Award trophy is an important piece of hockey history, and its sale should draw significant interest, Juteau said.

“For me, that’s a really, really important trophy and I don’t see that necessarily another one to come up for sale anytime soon,” said Juteau, who admitted the value is tough to gauge because one has never come up for sale before. “I wouldn’t be surprised to get a lot more bids on it.”

Now in his early 60s, Watson said he and his wife, Molly, are starting to downsize. Watson said they would like to put the proceeds toward a couple of things they support, including the scholarship they started at UMD’s Labovitz School of Business and Economic in memory of their son, Jack, who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

“Somebody else is going to see some nice value in it, and God bless them. There’s so many of those rabid collectors out there,” Watson said. “There’s some good causes that will get funded because of it.”

Related Articles

Gophers avoid scary upset in 66-54 win over Chicago State

Gophers running back Tre Berry has left the team

How Gophers are adjusting their quarterback recruiting

Gophers looking forward to playing at Wrigley Field

Gophers men’s basketball: Minnesota struggles, but escapes with OT win over Green Bay

By Ted Rossman, Bankrate.com

For a long time, credit cards have generally fallen into three tiers: no-annual-fee cards, mid-tier cards with annual fees around $95 and premium cards with annual fees measured in the hundreds (these used to cluster around $400 or $500 per year, now it’s more like $800 or $900 in many cases).

Related Articles

Sharp disagreements over economy threaten Federal Reserve interest rate cut

Will the price be right? What shoppers can expect for the holiday season

Workers turn to ‘polyworking’ to combat frozen salaries and inflation

Minnesota property taxes statewide may go up close to $1 billion next year

Quiz: What’s your holiday shopping personality?

The upmarket migration of luxury credit cards such as the Chase Sapphire Reserve® and American Express Platinum Card® has created a large (and growing) gap between the traditional middle and premium tiers. And we all know that businesses see gaps and like to fill them with profit.

In this case, they’ve begun to do that by introducing a fourth tier of cards — upper-middle-class cards, if you will — and I expect more cards at that level are on the way. This is good news for the many households left behind by the soaring annual fees of premium cards, but underwhelmed by the traditional mid-tier offerings.

There’s a lot of potential value in this emerging market segment, as well as opportunities for card issuers to be even more creative when it comes to what this group is interested in. For example, where’s the credit card with elevated rewards or statement credits for daycares and summer camps or airport lounge access for the whole family?

So let’s take a look at the current landscape and make some predictions about what might be coming.

Luxury cards have become much pricier

If you want the most comprehensive airport lounge access and the longest list of travel and lifestyle credits, you’re better off with a really high-end card such as the Amex Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve. But you’re going to pay a handsome price for those privileges: These cards have raised their annual fees by hundreds of dollars in recent years, to $895 and $795, respectively. You’re not getting champagne travel on a beer budget anymore. Recent fee increases have promoted an even greater air of exclusivity — champagne travel on a caviar budget, if you will.

I don’t see that trend reversing anytime soon. We haven’t reached the top of the annual fee mountain yet. Within the next few years, one or both of these cards will likely eclipse the $1,000 annual fee threshold — and there will be plenty of people willing to pay it. The high-end consumer is doing quite well. Moody’s, for instance, reports that the top 10% of earners now account for 50% of all spending (a record high). Card issuers are tripping over each other in an effort to woo these heavy spenders.

But there’s inevitably going to be some attrition, too, and I see that as a feature of the strategy, not a bug.

If everyone is special, then no one is

As airport lounge access has become an increasingly widespread credit card perk, some cardholders complain that airport lounges have become too crowded. Certain issuers have trimmed back guest privileges as a potential antidote (the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, for instance, is cutting free guest benefits for most cardholders in early 2026).

Another lever that card issuers are pulling is to set higher barriers to entry, such as the higher annual fees announced over the summer on the Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve. And if some cardholders downgrade or cancel their cards as a result, that shouldn’t surprise the issuers. They might even welcome it to some extent, if their remaining premium cardholders feel extra special and others switch to one of the company’s other products. Introducing more “premium lite” cards could help keep them in the fold.

All of this points to the necessity of an expanded grouping of credit cards targeted at the mass affluent. After all, HENRYs (high earners not rich yet) need credit cards, too. Credit card marketers will be smart to lean further in this direction, because this is an already lucrative segment of the population which should become even more so in the future as careers grow and incomes expand.

What ‘fourth-tier’ cards already exist?

There are potentially exciting cards coming as issuers work to tap into this in-between market, but waiting for banks to introduce new “premium lite” cards isn’t going to meet your needs today. The good news is that there are a few existing products that fall squarely in that upper-middle tier when it comes to their annual fees and, to some extent, their benefits.

American Express Gold Card

The best (and most longstanding) example of a “mid-tier plus” credit card is the American Express® Gold Card. With a $325 annual fee, it’s hardly cheap, but it’s a lot more affordable than the $895 you need to shell out every year for the Platinum Card. The Gold Card’s list of perks isn’t nearly as extensive (airport lounge access is a notable omission), but it gives a generous 4X points on a hefty amount of restaurant and U.S. supermarket purchases (up to $50,000 and $25,000 in annual purchases, respectively, then 1X points after that). That appeals to big spenders of all kinds, whether you’re a growing family or a household made up of a couple of DINKs (dual-income, no kids).

Gold cardholders also earn elevated rewards on many flight and hotel purchases, along with hundreds of dollars in annual credits for a wide variety of travel, dining and rideshare expenses. This is a solid option, particularly for high-spending foodies who like to travel but can’t justify the Platinum Card’s lofty price tag.

Capital One Venture X

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card debuted in 2021 to challenge the Sapphire Reserve and Amex Platinum at the top of the market, but its $395 annual fee is now less than half of what those other cards charge. It beats the Gold Card on airport lounge access, although it doesn’t have as many everyday perks. The Venture X is a hybrid example that falls in between the traditional middle tier and luxury rivals that recently became much more expensive. Capital One has an opportunity to position this card as more of a mass-market play.

Citi/AAdvantage Globe Card

Last month, Citi and American Airlines launched another card into the growing mix of offerings that sit between the traditional middle and high tiers. The Citi® / AAdvantage® Globe Mastercard®, which has a $350 annual fee, gives cardholders a taste of luxury at a more affordable price point than many rivals. Among other benefits, customers get four airport lounge passes each year, up to $240 in annual Turo credits and a few hundred dollars in additional credits ranging from in-flight purchases to personal training, live entertainment, expedited security screening and more.

Bilt Mastercard

In some cases, issuers already have products that they’re working to adapt for this upwardly mobile, not-premium-yet set.

Bilt, for instance, is doing some fascinating things that appeal to young professionals. They may be HENRYs today, but they could be truly rich soon. On the face of it, the Bilt Mastercard® is the card for renters. It’s the only credit card that allows everyone to pay rent (and earn rewards) without a transaction fee. But it’s also much more than that.

Bilt offers many compelling rewards opportunities ranging from rent payments to travel, dining and more. Plus, it features a really generous list of transfer partners and a host of other incentives that emphasize spending in your local neighborhood. Bilt has created its own loyalty ecosystem and has teased two new cards coming in 2026 that will build upon its no-annual-fee roots. The forthcoming $495 annual fee version (details to be announced) feels like it will fit the upper-middle-class credit card narrative. There will also be a $95 annual fee version with a shorter set of benefits and a lower barrier to entry.

Interestingly, Bilt is expanding upon its renter roots with a path to homeownership program that includes credit building and mortgage rewards. The company keeps working to appeal to the upwardly mobile in very unique ways.

The bottom line

Between fast-growing fintech startups like Bilt and established players such as American Express, Citi and Capital One, credit card issuers have begun carving out a new niche in the traditional credit card landscape. It’s not just “no fee, $95 fee or $795 fee” anymore. There’s a growing group of “upper-middle-class” credit cards with annual fees in the $300 to $500 range. I expect this category to continue to expand as luxury cards move further upmarket and leave a gap in their wake.

©2025 Bankrate.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.