Science is increasingly commuting the death sentence that is a diagnosis of
multiple myeloma. A
cancer of the plasma cells that primarily strikes the elderly, multiple myeloma has been deadly because patients have been unable to withstand the aggressive treatment necessary to combat it.
Now that's changing with the use of new drugs combined with refinements in the use and timing of stem cell transplants — therapies minus the devastating side effects of traditional treatment.
Details of the latest therapies for multiple myeloma will be discussed during a unique "town meeting" style program June 15 at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center sponsored by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The free program, open to the general public, is accessible in person, via a live Webcast (or later by Web archive) or by a toll-free phone link.
"New ways of treating multiple myeloma can be seen as a bellweather for progress in the overall search to find ways to turn some once-fatal cancers into chronic illnesses that can be managed, resulting in extended lives," said William Bensinger, M.D., one of the forum's presenters. He is director of Fred Hutchinson's Autologous Stem Cell Transplant Program.
"Where just a few years ago there were few effective treatments for multiple myeloma, now there are many, and some are being combined and timed to help people live longer," he said. "While the goal remains curing cancer by killing every last abnormal cell so it never comes back, in some cancers, keeping the cancer at bay can be a very legitimate interim strategy."
More than 15,000 new cases of multiple myeloma will be diagnosed in the United States this year; median age at diagnosis is 65. About 11,000 persons with the cancer will die this year.
The cancer is not curable using conventional chemotherapy, which has led to the use of new drugs and transplant procedures, including multiple-drug chemotherapies. Therapies being used at Fred Hutchinson include:
Autologous stem cell transplants: These are transplants using the patient's own stem cells, which are given back after chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. Autologous transplants offer higher initial survival rates, but because they do not produce graft-versus-myeloma effect, they may not result in long-term remission.
Experimental therapies to counter this effect include: