Sunday was another lightning round of scientific presentations and a whole session on racial diversity in research, treatment, care teams, and biology. The first speaker shared a quote from someone (I should look it up) who was speaking about asking for what you need: “When you ask not, you have not.”
Dr. Saad Usmani, a well-regarded multiple myeloma specialist, spoke about “What we do know:”
- Myeloma is the #1 blood cancer among African Americans.
- African Americans are less likely to receive lenalidomide.
- African Americans have a lower incidence of high-risk disease.
- When African Americans with myeloma get a stem cell transplant, they do better than white myeloma patients.
The IMF’s M-POWER project was attracting a lot of interest! As I mentioned previously, one of the ways to fight systemic racism is to diversify the care team.
One of the speakers mentioned cell lines that are used for basic science research, including HELA cells, that were used in the development of the FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) test that maps the genetic material in the bone marrow of myeloma patients. I happen to have read an amazing book about this, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, whose cancer cells were used (without permission) and are still in use today. I’d highly recommend reading it.
Another Icelandic report from the IMF’s Black Swan Research Initiative®-funded iStopMM project reported on checking Free Light Chains in MGUS patients to be indicative of disease presence and progression.
An interesting study from the Bronx area of New York City showed that the air pollution in the area close to the Twin Towers that were attacked on 9/11 contributed to an increase in MGUS among first-responders. This area in the Bronx continues to have very outdoor air pollution (OAP), which is probably affecting the residents who live there and breathe the OAP every day. My takeaway from this is it may partially answer the question I get so often, “How did I get myeloma?”
I attended a number of other presentations about infections in myeloma patients (bad), a test developed in the UK called Myeloma Genome Profile (MGP) proved superior to FISH. There have been more than a couple of studies comparing peripheral blood tests to Next Generation Flow (NGF) which requires bone marrow. There’s a move toward fewer bone marrow biopsies and more testing using peripheral blood and mass spectrometry. Mayo Clinic, where I see a myeloma specialist uses mass spec which they’re calling Mass Fix.
— Barb Davis
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