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DougC
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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 07:42 pm |
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Everything you ever wanted to know and then some about Myeloma
http://northtexas.myeloma.org/mm101.htm
Last edited on Mon Mar 30th, 2009 02:43 am by DougC
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DougC
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Posted: Sun Jun 8th, 2008 07:51 pm |
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I think it should be noted that some of the information might conflict with your doctor's treatment plan and/or treatment results. However for the most part, the site really does a good job of capturing what having MM is all about...in my opinion.
Best to all of you....keep fighting the good fight
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DougC
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Posted: Tue Jul 1st, 2008 01:13 pm |
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Blocking a Single Protein Proves Toxic to Myeloma Cells in Laboratory Studies
http://www.nih.gov/news/health/jun2008/nci-22.htm
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DougC
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Posted: Mon Jul 14th, 2008 02:24 am |
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Nice blog/site (Myeloma and Curcumin)
http://margaret.healthblogs.org/
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DougC
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Posted: Thu Jul 31st, 2008 11:27 pm |
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From the IMF website
Understanding Bisphosphonate (Aridea) Therapy
http://myeloma.org/pdfs/UnderstandingBisphos_b3.2.pdf
Understanding Serum Free Light Chain Assays (Kappa/Lamdda)
http://myeloma.org/pdfs/u-freelite_d1web.pdf
Understanding Dexamethasone and Other Steroids
http://myeloma.org/pdfs/u-dex-eng_c1-web.pdf
Understanding Thalidomide Therapy
http://myeloma.org/pdfs/Understanding_Thalidomide.pdf
Understanding VELCADE® (bortezomib) for Injection Therapy
http://myeloma.org/pdfs/u-vel_eng_h2_web2.pdf
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DougC
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Posted: Tue Sep 9th, 2008 06:24 pm |
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Keep in mind as you read different things on the internet.......
Five-year survival rates
When you learn you have cancer, you will probably come across the five-year survival rate — a statistic representing the percentage of people with the same kind of cancer who have survived at least five years after diagnosis. These statistics can help evaluate the effectiveness of different treatments. However, it’s best not to think of them as a source of certainty about your situation. Here are a few things to keep in mind about statistical survival rates:
- The rates are based on all people with the same kind of cancer, no matter their age, previous health problems, whether they received adequate treatment, or refused treatment altogether.
- Five years isn’t a magic number. In some cancers surviving for five years is a landmark, while in others, like breast cancer, larger periods of time are required to predict effectiveness of treatment.
- The rates are an average that includes people who may have outlived the survival rate by many years and others who may have survived a very short time.
- The rates measure the outcomes of people who were diagnosed over five years ago — so it doesn’t reflect changes in treatment that you will benefit from today.
- Survival rates don’t measure quality of life.
The bottom line is that a statistic can’t tell you what’s going to happen in your case. No matter what the survival rate, many people with advanced cancer have enjoyed an excellent quality of life for many years after diagnosis.
http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-guide/index.html
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DougC
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Posted: Fri Sep 12th, 2008 12:31 pm |
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One of the drugs you might see in your treatment: Cisplatin...element of D-PACE
Variation Of Normal Protein Could Be Key To Resistance To Common Cancer Drug
NewsRx.com
September 4, 2008
Researchers at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UC SD) in La Jolla have found evidence explaining why a common chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, may not always work for every cancer patient. They have shown that when a variant version of a key protein that normally causes cell death is active, patients may be resistant to the cancer-killing drug.
The scientists say that such findings, reported online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, are important to understanding how personalized therapies may be developed for patients.
In a series of experiments, Jean Wang, Ph.D., distinguished professor of medicine and Associate Director of Basic Research at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, Richard Kolodner, Ph.D., professor of medicine at UC San Diego and Executive Director, Laboratory Science and Technology at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and their co-workers found evidence that when a specific variant form of a so-called "mismatch repair" protein, PMS2, is active, cisplatin doesn't kill cancer cells the way it normally does. The cancer is, in effect, resistant to the drug.
As a repair protein, PMS2 is crucial to fixing mistakes in DNA that may occur during replication. It also has a darker side, playing a role in instructing cells to kill themselves. For example, Wang, Kolodner and their colleagues had previously shown that PMS2 is needed for cisplatin to kill cancer cells, activating another protein, p73, which in turn begins a cascade of steps leading to cell suicide. Since most cancer cell-killing therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation take advantage of this process, the team wanted to better understand how cancer cells might evade such suicide instructions, rendering the therapy ineffective.
Defects in such mismatch repair genes and proteins can increase cancer risk, particularly for hereditary colon cancer. The researchers knew that the PMS2 gene had at least 12 different forms in humans. In studies on mouse cells lacking PMS2, they tested several different variations of the human PMS2 protein, for the most part showing that PMS2 indeed sensitized cells to cisplatin, causing cell suicide. They finally found that one variant, PMS2 (R20Q), failed to activate p73 and bring about cell death in response to cisplatin. The drug's toxic effects were compromised in cells with the PMS2 (R20Q).
Wang sees many possibilities for future research. "We don't know how many people have this PMS2 variant," she explained, noting that cisplatin is the first-line therapy for testicular and ovarian cancers. "We would like to take these findings to human tumor samples. If we could find out which individuals carry this variant, it might change our decisions about treating them with cisplatin."
If researchers could track how fast ovarian cancer patients' tumors develop resistance to cisplatin, she said, correlation studies might be performed to find risk factors, such as gene variants.
Ideally, scientists will ultimately design new drugs that can push cancer cells into cell suicide, rather than repairing themselves, she noted.
Copyright 2008, Preventive Medicine Week via NewsRx.com
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DougC
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Posted: Mon Oct 13th, 2008 01:22 am |
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The below linked article is rather old, but it's the only piece of research I've found that makes the below statement. I post it because others might be curious as to how long the myeloma has possibly been present....I know I am.
"Myeloma cells have low proliferative activity—most myeloma experts opine that the initial oncogenic event occurs 10-15 years before clinical disease manifestation."
http://caonline.amcancersoc.org/cgi/content/full/51/5/273
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Lady Di
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Posted: Sat Oct 18th, 2008 05:48 am |
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Doug,
Thanks for the reference. This may explain where I'm at in the progression of the disease. If in fact I have MM, which I'm still not convinced I do.
Hope you are doing well.
Lady Di
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DougC
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Posted: Fri Oct 31st, 2008 07:10 pm |
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In my opinion, this article does a great job of capturing the debate of Cure vs Control. I know at times I wasn't sure what was the best way to wage war on this beast. I'm thankful I found a field general who believed in taking our best shot by employing all available resources....there's my war analogy for the day.
Cure vs Control
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=4782&UID=
Last edited on Fri Oct 31st, 2008 07:11 pm by DougC
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janalee
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Posted: Mon Nov 3rd, 2008 10:38 pm |
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DougC wrote: In my opinion, this article does a great job of capturing the debate of Cure vs Control. I know at times I wasn't sure what was the best way to wage war on this beast. I'm thankful I found a field general who believed in taking our best shot by employing all available resources....there's my war analogy for the day.
Cure vs Control
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=4782&UID=
Afternoon everyone, you might recognize me from clinic, I do the majority of the scheduling for all of our pts here in the BMT clinic. What brings me here, is tha I am currently doing a research paper on MM. Doug- this link was very informative, and if anyone else can send information my way I would greatly appreciate it. I am interested in learning more in depth about MM, any controversies surrounding treatment, different types of treatment and of course current research. Working at Huntsman has been very helpful, but I want to learn more. All of our patients and their care givers go through so much with this. My mom currently has breast cancer, and can relate to a certain level, but breast cancer has hardly any comparisons with MM.
Thanks!
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DougC
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Posted: Wed Nov 12th, 2008 01:54 pm |
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Watch a couple of these debate and videos on front line treatment...pretty good insight.
http://myeloma.org/main.jsp?source=link&source_link_id=3038&type=article&tab_id=1&menu_id=0&id=2305
Good luck with your paper
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janalee
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Posted: Wed Nov 12th, 2008 04:07 pm |
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Doug, you are my hero. I can't thank you enough for all of your insight, you have been a real inspiration to me inregards to my research paper. I like being able to get your view on all the different treatment protocols in my paper. Speaking of, would you mind to horribly if I mentioned some of your experiences in my paper? It's nice to have a patients perspective on the treatments being debated upon.
You are my hero.
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DougC
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Posted: Wed Feb 4th, 2009 03:24 am |
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Green Tea Blocks Benefits Of Cancer Drug (Velcade)
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090203162355.htm
"Our finding that GTE or EGCG blocked the therapeutic action of Velcade was completely unexpected,"
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DougC
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Posted: Mon Mar 30th, 2009 02:42 am |
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Hmm, so just how long have we had Myeloma? The below article might be step in the right direction to finding out.
"The vast majority of patients with multiple myeloma develop signature changes in their blood that can be identified years before the cancer is diagnosed, according to a new study."
“This shows once and for all that there is a premalignant stage that preceded virtually every multiple myeloma,” said senior author Dr. S. Vincent Rajkumar of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.
http://www.cancer.gov/ncicancerbulletin/022409/page2
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DougC
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Posted: Fri Jul 3rd, 2009 01:23 am |
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Interesting: "the potential to reverse acute kidney failure in Multiple myeloma patients through a unique extracorporeal therapy."
In a sense, a Free Light Chain Filter....kinda cool
http://www.gambro.com/int/News--events/News/2009/Gambro-introduces-Theralite--a-lifeline-for-Myeloma-kidney-patients/
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jcminlaw
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Posted: Fri Jul 10th, 2009 04:33 am |
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| Hello. I'm new to all of this. My wonderful 98 pound mother in law was diagnozed about two months ago. She is 86 years old and has had to have blood transfusions at least monthly. This past week, they started her on Thalomid. It seems to be knocking her for a loop. She had to go into the hospital yesterday and had a complete transfusion, but has developed a high fever and no one seems to know why. They have packed her in ice packs and keep monitoring her, but I have to wonder if anyone has experienced high fevers with this drug. It also totally knocks her out and she wants to sleep constantly. Another thing is that since whe moved in with us, she eats well, three full meals a day plus snacks, but she continues to lose weight. This is all so baffeling to me. I want to make her as comfortable as possible and just wondered if anyone knows anything about thalomid? She's also been complaining (very slightly, because she is NOT a complainer) that she has pain on her lower back on the right side. The doctors haven't really addressed this. I just read someone's submission and they talked about kidney failure. Is that another sideline of this awful illness? I'd truly appreciate anyones input on these things. Thank you and God bless all of you. Jacky
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Posted: Sat Jul 11th, 2009 12:04 am |
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Dr. Guido Tricot, the Director of the Myeloma Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute, has this reply:
Thalidomide very seldom causes fever. Transfusions or infections are more likely to have caused the fever. Thalidomide is not a very good drug for someone her age. Revlimid or velcade are better drugs for older people.
Please let us know if you have any further questions.
Chat Moderator
Myeloma Program at Huntsman Cancer Institute
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DougC
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Posted: Fri Jul 31st, 2009 02:50 am |
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Multiple Myeloma Genome Unlocked
Discovery paves way for better therapies for some blood cancer patients, experts say
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/07/29/multiple-myeloma-genome-unlocked.html
I wish the article called out who conducted the research and where.
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