The end of March brings the close of Myeloma Awareness Month. You may not be familiar with Multiple Myeloma but our family is all too familiar. Nearly 10 years ago, I lost my mother-in-law, Sylvia Anderson, to this cancer. My husband lost his mother and our children lost their grandmother.

Shortly after in the summer of 2010 I, along with my three running buddies, travelled to Calgary to take part in Multiple Miles for Myeloma. If memory serves, we raised over $1,400 for a cancer that affects B cells, the immune cells responsible for the production of antibodies. Normal B cells develop in bone marrow. Myeloma therefore affects bones. Multiple myeloma arises when the cancer cells travel through the body and form tumours in several different bones. Affected bones may become brittle as the malignant cells proliferate and alter the chemical equilibrium in the marrow.

Multiple Miles for Myeloma is an initiative to raise funds for local myeloma research and increase awareness of this cancer.  Together with other events and along with direct donations, more than $1,000,000 has been raised for local myeloma research at the University of Alberta and the Cross Cancer Institute. In the last year, six new clinical trials have launched.  These include treatments for patients with smouldering Myeloma and those with multiple relapses, providing treatments that were not available just a few short years ago.  The trials also include treatments with novel drug combinations which would not otherwise be available to patients who have relapsed.  The money from events has also allowed local researchers to focus on new treatments such as antibody and cellular based therapies, some of which may begin clinical trials in the next few years. Volunteers in Alberta have been extremely proactive in raising funds for myeloma research with over $1.25M raised over the past five years.

To ensure 100 per cent of donations go towards Myeloma research,  corporate sponsors offset operating funds and many energetic volunteers provide the needed manpower.
According to the National Cancer Institute in 2009 there were an estimated 20,580 new cases of multiple myeloma and 10,580 myeloma-related deaths.

Treatment for multiple myeloma includes drugs that modulate the immune system, chemotherapy drugs, radiation therapy, stem cell transplants and, in some patients, surgery. The prognosis for myeloma is only fair. Median survival is about three years, but some patients have a life expectancy of 10 years. The prognosis of multiple myeloma is variable, depending on the approximate stage and response to therapy. Though there is no cure for the disease, today’s treatments are more effective and less toxic (have fewer side effects) than did many in the past. Multiple myeloma is a focus of active ongoing research.

This blood cancer is diagnosed to over 200 Albertans each year. With the availability of new treatments, quality of life and overall survival has been vastly improved as patients are now living with the disease on average for 8-10 years. My mother-in-law lived two years with the diagnosis.

Results from two early-phase clinical trials suggest that a form of immunotherapy that uses genetically engineered immune cells may be highly effective in patients with advanced multiple myeloma.

Both trials used CAR T cells that were engineered to target a protein on myeloma cells called B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). Although most patients in the trials had good responses to the treatment, including many who experienced complete remissions, the length of time that most patients have been followed after receiving the treatment is still limited, researchers from both trials cautioned.

Although it’s still too early to determine whether these BCMA-targeted CAR T cells will eventually become standard treatments for multiple myeloma, some researchers were encouraged by the early results.

Also a form of immunotherapy known as checkpoint inhibition is rapidly becoming an established part of everyday cancer care. The Food and Drug Administration has approved checkpoint inhibitors, which are biologic drugs known as humanized monoclonal antibodies, for more types of cancer, including melanoma, lung cancer, lymphoma, and bladder cancer.

So in the last 10 years since my mother-in-law lost her life to this cancer, people just like myself and my running buddies, have worked to raise money for research into Myeloma and have helped advance treatments. Maybe one day Myeloma will be a distant memory and families won’t be forever altered, missing their loved one.