Blog Archives

Want to Improve Multiple Myeloma Survival Rates and Life Expectancy? - SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! And the MMRF Does Just That.

8/31/2013

The Cure Panel had the honor of having the Vice President of Marketing, Anne Quinn Young from The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation or MMRF. Anne provided an excellent outline of the activities of the MMRF and how they have helped to prioritize research funding, and explained their role in new drug development. You can listen to Anne's excellent presentation if you CLICK HERE and then go to minute 58 in the presentation.

Why on earth has myeloma had such recent progress in life expectancy and survival? We would like to think that it is the efforts of the excellent myeloma specialists that have been diligently working to save our butts, and it is. But guess what, they can not do it without exceptional treatment tools. How do they get these great treatment tools? Research and clinical trials is the mechanism that has been used to develop these tools, and what do we need to accomplish these activities? Of course it is MONEY!!!! As my old boss used to tell me "YOU WILL GET WHAT YOU INCENT!" There are a few people who really understand this philosophy. I believe one person that really understands this concept is Kathy Giusti, the co-founder of the MMRF (Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation). Kathy, a graduate of Harvard Business School and a pharmaceutical executive, used her business acumen to establish a results based system to speed up the development of new drugs so desperately needed to extend patient lives and ultimately to find the cure. You can find a wealth of information at their web site http://www.themmrf.org/ You can donate there also.

So why did I use the phrase SHOW ME THE MONEY? Because that is exactly what the MMRF has done. They have raised over $225 million dollars in research funding! And if you look at any terminal cancer, you will find few have made the progress in just 10 short years that multiple myeloma has. We now have three novel drugs that have been approved as well as two new novel drugs for relapse and refractory myeloma, Krypolis, and Pomalyst. In addition, we have a full pipeline of new drugs that are currently under development. These things do not happen without the commitment and dedication of the multiple myeloma specialists, but they cannot do it without the proper tools and the money to develop those tools.

To get an idea of the impact of the MMRF's efforts you need only to look at the single largest funding agency, the National Cancer Institute. The National Cancer Institute in 2010 had $5.1 billion dollars to allocate for research and Myeloma got just over 1% of the total or $55 million. So the MMRF has now delivered over 4 times the annual amount of the largest funding agency, the federal government.

Lest I forget, it is the efforts of many individuals that contribute their time, resources and yes, money in small and large amounts that make up the $225 million. A few that I have knowledge of include:

- Eric Gelber - who is part of the MMRF Power Bike Team and they have collected over $50,000. and you can see his link if you CLICK HERE.

- Kendra Goffredo - Who has collected over $55,000 for the MMRF, and you can see Kendra's link if you CLICK HERE.

This is just a small sample of the thousands of individuals who provide the financial support to keep the new research and development on track. Thanks to all of your selfless efforts, and together we will SAVE LIFE/Gary Petersen [email protected]

For more information on multiple myeloma go to the web site www.myelomasurvival.com or you can follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/grpetersen1

3 Comments

The Allogeneic Transplant in Multiple Myeloma - Dr. Ravi VIj provided a FAIR and BALANCED review of the Allogeneic Transplant in Myeloma Treatment.

8/25/2013

6 Comments

The Cure Panel broadcast of August 21 is now available if you CLICK HERE! Dr. Ravi Vij, a skilled multiple myeloma expert from Washington University, was one of two featured speakers. Dr. Vij is Associate Professor of Department of Medicine,Oncology Division,Bone Marrow Transplantation & Leukemia Section. We also co-featured the Vice President of Marketing for the MMRF(Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation), and I will blog about that next week.

I had asked the question in a previous post about the role of the allo transplant in the treatment continuum for Multiple Myeloma. The Allo, (allogenic transplant), is probably one of the most misunderstood of the current arsenal of myeloma treatments. Basically, the difference in these transplant techniques is that the autologous stem cell transplant uses your own stem cells to repopulate your bone marrow once it has been destroyed by the use of high dose chemotherapy, and the allogeneic uses someone else's stem cells to replace your bone marrow.

There are also different kinds of allogeneic transplants. One is the related donor transplant, which the stem cells for transplant come from a relative or sibling, and the unrelated donor, which is exactly what it sounds like. The stem cells come from a non related donor. The rest of the significant information about the pros and cons of the allo and differences of treatment types, I will leave to the expert Dr. VIj.

So what were some of the key points that I learned from this Allogeneic broadcast?

1) Apparently the RIT(Reduced Intensity Allogeneic Transplant), has a first year mortality of 10 to 15% vs. 30 to 50% for the published data currently available. This is 2 to 5 times better than the published data, and would indicate to me that the very first thing you need to ask any allogeneic doctor is what is your ONE YEAR SURVIVAL RATE? He knows so, if he does not tell RUN LIKE HECK! Find one that has great experience and not one of the ones that make up the 30 to 50% morbidity group.

2) The myeloma allogeneic transplant has a much higher morbiity than it does in other blood cancers, and some doctors relate that to the older average age of the myeloma patient and their comorbidities. Younger patients may have much better outcomes with the allo than the average myeloma patient.

3) High Risk patients and those that have had a rapid relapse after first treatment may be more likely to benefit from new allogeneic clinical trials that are under developement.

And of course, in order to get an adequate match for a donor stem cell transplant, you first have to have donors. Robin Roberts of ABC News had found that there is a critical need for donors, and you can learn about the donor registry and become a donor if you CLICK HERE!

Hi, I need a donor!
Would you be Mine?

The Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant - Pros and Cons

Dr. Vij started with stating that this topic is still a very relevant for discussion of the myeloma treatments. The allogeneic transplant, which includes not only obtaining stem cells for replacement after high dose chemotherapy from a sibling or unrelated donor, has been under investigation for going on 2 to 3 decades. It has never become mainstream for myleoma treatment and left to the realm of clinical trials. The allogeneic transplant sources have expanded to include alternative donor transplant sources, which includes cord blood and haploidentical donor. A haploidentical, or half matched related donor, could be a sister, brother, mother, or father.

The use of the RIT ( Reduced Intensity Transplant) has taken off in the last decade and a half, and uses the donor's immune system to fight the cancer in the myeloma patient instead of relying on chemotherapy exclusively. This has resulted in significant reduction in morbidity and mortality in allo stem cell transplantation. It now has improved to the point it can be used in older patients in their late 60's to early 70's. However, despite these advances the allo stem cell transplant in multiple myeloma is more the exception than the rule. This is because of the contradictory results obtained from clinical trials. Clinical trials have been being conducted for over 2 decades and originally involved what we call fully myeloablative stem cell transplants. This is where we relied on the chemotherapy and radiation administered to the patient prior to the transplant to eradicate the disease quickly, and the stem cell source's main function was to provide fresh bone marrow to allow blood cell production. That experience provided a 10 to 20% disease free survival suggesting that this set of patients is cured of their disease. The issue at that time was the upfront mortality that was between 30 and 50% in the first 6 months after transplant. It was felt after several trails that although the allo had curative potential, it in fact harmed more people than it helped. Those people who died may have had a long term disease free control, and some perhaps extended control if they had been treated with conventional treatment or with an autologous transplant.

What contributed to this high initial mortality for the myeloma patient is still not clear, and mortality is much greater than that for other disease states. This has been contributed by some people to organ impairment ( like the kidney) ,comorbidity, frailty, and the advanced age of the myeloma population and these factors may have put the myeloma patient at a higher risk of complication. At that time a clinical trial that was being conducted, comparing the allogeneic transplant to the auologous transplant was terminated early because it was felt to be unethical to even conduct the trial given the high mortality that ensued with the allogeneic stem cell transplant.

More recently in the last 10 to 15 years, we have really started to do the reduced intensity transplants (RIT), and this has really brought down the up front toxicity of this procedure. Instead of the 30 to 50% mortality, we are now down to perhaps 10% at 6 months post transplant, and 10 to 15% at 1 year from transplant. With the RIT (Reduced Intensity Transplant) , it relies more on the donor's graft to provide the anti myeloma activity, The immune cells in the donor graft attacks the cancer in the recipient. and relies less on the chemotherapy and radiation that was given to the patient prior to transplant to control the disease. By reducing the chemotherapy and radiation at the outset we are able to reduce the toxicity of the procedure, The issue therein is that the graft vs. tumor response or the immune effects of the donor graft is slower in developing. It often takes weeks to months to exert its full impact. So if we have a disease that is progressing at a rapid rate at the time of transplant, or have a very active disease at the time of transplant, it will often require faster disease control than that offered by the RIT. So even now some patients will have a fully myloablative transplant if the disease burden is high at the time of allogeneic transplant.

However, one other strategy that has evolved is the tandem transplant where the first transplant is autologous, and then followed in three to six months by a second allogeneic transplant (preferably sibling matched). What we have is rapid disease control from the autologous transplant along with the potential curative characteristics of the allogeneic transplant. We have been able to accomplish this treatment regimen without excessive morbidity and mortality, but we have not been able to conclusively show that this is better than a single autologous or dual autologous transplant. There have been numerous studies in this regard, perhaps a half a dozen large randomized trials. Two of these trials showed that the tandem autologous transplant had an OS (overall survival) advantage and possibly some patients are being cured of their myeloma. The problem is that for most studies the followup is short. Four of the studies also show no survival advantage of the autologous/allogeneic over the tandem autologous transplant. The critics of this assertion who favor allogeneic transplants point out that the these 4 studies are the shortest in duration and that more time is required to show a survival advantage for the auto/allo. This may in fact be true, because it has been noted in the past that a survival advantage may emerge with long followup. So Dr. Vij believes we still do need longer term followup of the allogeneic studies which have been conducted in the era of RIT(Reduced Intensity Transplant).

However, we must look at what other treatment options we have for myeloma patients, and in this case we have seen a plethora of options which have emerged over that last 10 plus years. Autologous transplant, not often offered as a curative therapy, however is meant to be a life extending therapy. The data from two large groups of patients, one in the United States and one in Europe, with long term follow up suggests that up to 30% of patients that obtain a complete remission(CR) after an autologous transplant are alive and disease free for 12 plus years from transplant. Now we are having more and more patients who achieve complete remission, and complete remission after autologous transplant is not in the 50 to 60% range. So now if we have 30% of those patients alive and disease free 12 plus years out we will have many more patients living long term with just autologous transplants. The auto is a much safer procedure, which in the best of hands has only a 1 to 2% mortality rate. We are making great progress with the newer drugs being incorporated into the autologous transplant paradigm which will let more people be disease free 10 to 15 years out. Do we think that these people are cured? We hope that they are, having been disease free that far out, however we still will not find many myeloma specialists who will talk about the autologous transplant as being curative.

As said, our armamentarium of drugs is expanding, and even with the transplant ineligible patients, we are seeing better results. Within the last year we have had two new drugs approved, Carfilzomib and Pomaldomide, added to Bortezomib, Revlimid, and Thalidomide which were approved in the first decade in this millennium. We certainly have made major strides. Now we have antibodies that are in development that seem to be very promising, which include Elotuzomab and Daratumumab and other CD38 antigen directed antibodies, with some people now feeling that the best is yet to come. Some people are conflicted with whether we should be subjecting patients to a high risk procedure with curative potential, rather than going with our increasingly more effective chemotherapy drugs.

This Allogeneic transplant is left to be in more of the realm of investigation. There are moves afoot to do large Allogeneic transplant studies. The two groups of patients where this is thought to be worth investigating further are those that have high risk chromosomal abnormalities, where using it as an upfront procedure would be appropriate, or with people who have had early relapse after either transplant or conventional therapy. Dr. Vij believes that the Allogeneic transplant will continue to be an area of active research, and in the future may become applicable to more patients, however right now caution is advised.

We often have different Allogeneic approaches at different centers. Dr. Vij is often asked whether he would conduct an allo on a younger patient. He explained to us that we physicians all, in such patients, have a discussion about the treatment options. They sometimes see patients in their 20's, but not often, but in those cases he thinks doctors ,and especially transplant doctors, are willing to explore the use of the allogeneic transplant outside the context of the clinical trial. He also said that different physicians have varying comfort levels of conducting the allogeneic transplant outside the clinical trial format.

Dr. Vij then asked to go into the Q & A section of the program. If you want to listen to his excellent conversation of the Pros and Cons with the Cure Panel and the listeners, it begins at the 20 min. and 15 second time of his presentation. You can again go to this presentation if you CLICK HERE. The Q & A session included some unique incites into the Graft vs Host disease, more in depth explanation of the mini allo (RIT), and an expanded explanation of the reason morbidity in myeloma is greater than in MDS or leukemia.

I would like to thank Dr.Ravi Vij, Priya and the Cure Talk Crew, the Myeloma Panel members and our listeners for another great educational experience for the myeloma patient community. And as always may God Bless your myeloma journey. Gary Petersen [email protected]

For more information on multiple myeloma go to the web site www.myelomasurvival.com or you can follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/grpetersen1

P.S. - After the broadcast Dr. Robert Orlowski of M.D. Anderson was kind enough to send the following tweet: About use of allo in high risk patients. MD Anderson data: same factors that predict for early relapse post-auto apply to allo. He included the attached article from Blood that provided a M.D. Anderson study showing the benefit of the RIP over the full allo in relapsed and refractory patients. To view this excellent article CLICK HERE. Thank you Dr. Orlowski for your confirming data, and your obvious commitment to the myeloma patient community.

6 Comments

Beat the Multiple Myeloma Life Expectancy Prognosis - How to Educate Yourself by Jenny Ahlstrom and Gary Petersen

8/18/2013

8 Comments

We have talked about the two most important things that a patient needs to do to improve their survival prognosis, 1) having a multiple myeloma specialist on their team and 2) obtaining an education about multiple myeloma and becoming your own best advocate. This web site has spent most of its efforts on providing the myeloma patient community with survival information and a listing of national and international multiple myeloma professionals. However, we will now attempt to put together a comprehensive summary of how to find the best resources to obtain your multiple myeloma education. We will be breaking this into two parts, the first of which will focus on helpful web sites and information that provided the best myeloma educational opportunities, and then a section that will cover all the places where you can either listen to or read presentations from some of the world's most remarkable multiple myeloma professionals.

Your General Multiple Myeloma Education

When you first are diagnosed it is a very scary time in your life. If you go to the Internet you can find an OVERWHELMING amount of information, much of which is outdated with quotes of 3 to 5 years for survival. However there are a few of the best sources that the people before you have found to be very helpful.

Newly Diagnosed

When newly diagnosed, one of the very best places to find out about Myeloma is the IMF(International Myeloma Foundation) web site www.myeloma.org. This site will provide you with the basic information of what is multiple myeloma, treatments, and a very helpful hot line where you can talk to a well informed myeloma consultant.

The American Cancer Society has a web link that you may also find very helpful at:
http://www.cancer.org/cancer/multiplemyeloma/

The web site MyelomaSurvival.com at the link www.myelomasurvival.com will help you to find a multiple myeloma specialist for your team and provides some great survival data and a listing of some the world's best specialists.

Another great site is the MMRF(Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation) at the link: http://www.themmrf.org/

After the Initial Diagnosis

Once you have had some time to digest your initial diagnosis, you will want to expand your knowledge of not only what is multiple myeloma and their treatments but also to plug yourself into the "Multiple Myeloma Information Network". This is an informal network of web sites, myeloma activists and advocates who help to provide an Information Network that helps to disseminate the most up to date myeloma information.

The IMF web site is again a major resource, and you will find a listing of support groups thoughout the country that I believe are essential to improve your myeloma education, as well as provide support, encouragement, and friendship. The link to the list of support groups can be found if you CLICK HERE!

The web site Living With Multiple Myeloma, put together by Pat Killingsworth, advocate and myeloma author, keeps up to date with all of the current myeloma news and is at the link: http://multiplemyelomablog.com/. In addition, Pat has an on line support group every month that he will announce on his site. If a support group is not available in your area you can participate on line. You can email Cure Talk at [email protected] to request to be included monthly on her member list.

The LLS or Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma Society has a myeloma support group meeting that is a messenger type of meeting that you can join if you call in for their Tuesday support group meeting. You can sign up if you CLICK HERE!

ACOR Myeloma Listserv is an on line patient to patient support program that you can sign up for if you CLICK HERE. Mike Katz, a 20 year survivor, coordinates this excellent patient centric program.

Cure Talk is a web site that has content from myeloma professionals, other bloggers, clinical trial information, and has a lot of great information for the multiple myeloma patient community. You can link to their site if you CLICK HERE or go to http://trialx.com/curetalk/

The Myeloma Beacon is a site similar to Living With Multiple Myeloma and has a forum that provides patient to patient contact with a chat room feel. The Home page offers myeloma news and articles from some very knowledgeable patients. Link: http://www.myelomabeacon.com/forum/

There are so many sites, however that provide you with so much information that your head may never stop spinning. Here we try to whittle it down to a high quality and manageable level. I am now pleased to hand this blog post over to the founder of the web site mPatient, Jenny Ahlstrom.

How to Connect with the world's best Multiple Myeloma Specialists?

There are many ways that patients can connect directly with myeloma specialists. There are excellent patient seminars, webcast updates from ASH and ASCO and outstanding myeloma webcasts on particular topics. I've noticed that almost 90% of the time, whenever patients connect with myeloma doctors we have questions for the doctors that relate to our personal situation. Sometimes we want a second opinion, sometimes we are looking for clarification about our stage of myeloma, our symptoms, side effects or our disease stage. All of the time, we are looking for personally relevant information. More on this later, but first, here is a list of the great resources that are available today, directly from multiple myeloma specialists.

The International Myeloma Foundation web site (www.myeloma.org): The IMF has done an excellent job capturing information directly from myeloma specialists. On their web site under "webcasts" you can find several types of webcasts:There are patient questions answered by Dr. Durie, videos of past IMF patient seminars, videos from past medical meetings like ASH and ASCO as well as international conferences, videos from the International Myeloma Working Group (a group of over 180 myeloma specialists), videos from a nursing board (the Nurse Leadership Board) on myeloma topics, and videos of other myeloma-related topics.

The Cure Panel Talk Show (www.blogtalkradio.com/curepanel): These are monthly interviews hosted by myeloma patient Gary Petersen and others (Jack Aiello, Pat Killingsworth, Nick and Cynthia). The Cure Panel Talk Show interviews top myeloma specialists to find out what is happening in research, like understanding highlights from myeloma conferences or a new therapy. The show also covers related topics like legal or financial issues that patients might face. The Cure Panel Talk Show is hosted by Trialx (www.trialx.com)

The Myeloma Daily (http://paper.li/Myeloma_Doc/1310386431): This is a daily online newspaper with Dr. Robert A. Orlowski as editor. He pulls important study information and myeloma discovery information together and also covers relevant happenings in myeloma. You can subscribe at the above link.

Managing Myeloma (www.managingmyeloma.com): This is a web site that contains videos directly from experts. One of the most helpful links on this site for patients is the Expert Interviews link (http://www.managingmyeloma.com/knowledge-center/expert-interviews). Here you can watch videos directly from myeloma specialists on the latest topics in myeloma. This site is provided by MediCom Worldwide.

mPatient Myeloma Radio (www.mpatient.org): This is a new weekly internet radio show created by myeloma patient Jenny Ahlstrom who believes that we can drive discoveries faster if more of us participate in clinical trials. Because only 3-4% of myeloma patients join trials today, the pace of research is not where it could be if 10% or even 50% of us joined. In myeloma, today's treatments are yesterday's trials. In myeloma trials, patients are either getting the "standard of care" or something that is potentially better. She believes we can find a cure and that we are not helpless in our fight against myeloma. Doctors may be driving the direction of the research, but patients determine how fast they can run. You can subscribe to alerts about upcoming shows and posts from past shows by email at this link: http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailverify?uri=Mpatient&loc=en_US"

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (www.lls.org): The LLS provides patient support and gathers information from the experts at this link: http://www.lls.org/#/resourcecenter/pastprograms/myeloma/. These are mostly written papers that come from myeloma specialists on a particular topic like a new treatment.

Where do we go from here?
Our future hurdle as a myeloma community is to take this amazing information and simplify it in a way that is personally relevant to each patient. The information can get overwhelming and we may not be at our mental best while on many of the common myeloma medications. When we can sort through this information to find the most relevant information for our kind of myeloma, we are ever closer to finding a cure.

We hope that you find this helpful in your quest to become myeloma literate, and to become your own best advocate. Good luck and may God Bless your myeloma journey/ coauthors Jenny Ahlstrom & Gary Petersen

For more information on multiple myeloma go to the web site www.myelomasurvival.com or you can follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/grpetersen1

8 Comments

Multiple Myeloma Life Expectancy - The Allo, Is it a Cure or just a very Risky Treatment of Last Resort

8/14/2013

0 Comments

***You can listen to a comprehensive Cure Panel discussion of the Pros and Cons of the Allogenic Stem Cell Transplant presented by Dr. Ravi Vij of the Washington University. You can listen if you just CLICK HERE.***

The Allogenic stem cell transplant (the use of someone else's stem cells, a donor) has been one of the most debated treatment options that confronts the myeloma patient community. It is used more extensively in other cancers like leukemia, and lymphoma, and has not been a staple of care for myeloma. Some people feel it is the only possible way of achieving a Cure, however with the success of new novel therapies and use in conjunction with the autologous stem cell transplant (the use of your own stem cells) others feel the allo is just too risky unless you have exhausted all other options.

The majority of myeloma specialists do not feel the use of the allo is appropriate as a first line therapy, and I believe it has to do with the history of TRM(transplant related mortality). If you look at the following graph it will show you the history of mortality each year after transplant for the period between the years 2000 and 2010. This graph is from the CIMBTR which is a group of 500 transplant hospitals. You can find a slide presentation from the CIMBTR of everything that you ever wanted to know about transplant statistics if you just CLICK HERE.

If you look at this information the auto has always provided a survival advantage over the allo for at least the first 6 years. The first year mortality is 5% for the auto, 30% for the allo(sibling donor) and 50% for the allo(unrelated donor) I know of several people who have had allos, and find that at least those I know seem to be doing quite well. Some have had it as a primary therapy, and others who have had it as a last resort therapy. Because I know them, I must conclude they are either the lucky ones who have survived or they have found a safer allo than that represented in these graphs.

I have heard anecdotal information from two people in my support group that Moffitt in Tampa uses Velcade post transplant as part of there protocol and this has reduced the mortality to acceptable levels, however I have not seen any numbers that support this. The Velcade helps to reduce the impact of GVH (Graft vs Host disease) to acceptable levels. I can see how the use of the sibling donor transplant and that of an unrelated donor would become far more widely used if the one year mortality was closer to 10% than to that of 30 to 50% noted in the historic numbers.
I know I am looking forward to finding out more about the allo, and getting some input and great questions from the Jack, Mark, and Arnie's of the post allo myeloma patient community.

Good luck and may God Bless your myeloma journey/Gary Petersen [email protected]

For more information on multiple myeloma go to the web site www.myelomasurvival.com or you can follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/grpetersen1

0 Comments

Multiple Myeloma - There is a New Kid in Town (mPatient's Jenny Ahistron) That is Out to Improve Myeloma Life Expectancy by Educating the Myeloma Patient Community!

8/11/2013

8 Comments

It is often said that when you become a multiple myeloma patient you join a club that you wished you never belonged to, and then you find you are with some of the nicest and most caring people on the planet. But it is these same people who have helped to move the life expectancy from just 9 months to over 10 years with a skilled myeloma professional. Who are these people? Of course the fine multiple myeloma professionals like Dr. Kyle, Dr. Barlogie, Dr. Berenson, Dr. Rajkumar, Dr. Durie and many others, but there is also a subset of people who have multiple myeloma who have made remarkable contributions.

Susie Novis is the President of the International Myeloma Foundation and started the IMF because her husband had MM. Pat Killingsworth, author and patient advocate and MM survivor, is a spokesman for Myeloma Patient Community. Kathy Giusti is the co founder of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation and has collected more than $195 million for research to improve survival and find the cure. And there are many more who serve the myeloma patient community every day.

I am also of the firm belief that being your own best advocate and educating yourself about this rare disease is one of the most important things you can do to insure a long life expectancy prognosis. Your education can take many avenues, and one of the best ways is to talk to the best multiple myeloma professionals in the world to obtain their views on the best treatments and care. This has been done very successfully by Cure Talk, who has provided a series called the Myeloma Cure Panel. You can find a list of all the Cure Panel programs at the link http://www.blogtalkradio.com/curepanel Other Doctor interviews can be found at the IMF and Patient Power.

Recently, I was contacted by a myeloma patient by the name of Jenny Ahistron, who was diagnosed with MM and wanted to help to expand the scope of my work with survival rates. In addition, she started a web site called mPatient.org, and wanted to interview and broadcast weekly a program focusing on myeloma treatment and research from multiple myeloma specialists. I had frankly thought that once a week was overly aggressive, but to my surprise she has been keeping up with this blinding schedule and put together some really great content. You can see her web site and listen to all of the broadcasts to date, and she has also provided a print copy of the broadcast if you would rather have some bedtime reading.

The broadcasts have so far included Dr. Robert Z. Orlowski, MD, PhD, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Dr. Guido Tricot, MD, PhD, Holden Cancer Center, University of Iowa, Dr. Don Benson, MD, PhD, The James Comprehensive Cancer Center, Ohio State University, Dr. C. Ola Landgren, MD, PhD, The National Cancer Institute, and Dr. Robert A. Kyle, MD, Mayo Clinic. You can listen to the rebroadcast of these excellent interviews at http://www.mpatient.org/

Jenny is quite impressive for three reasons. First because she is so passionate about providing helpful information to the myeloma patient community, she is also an exceptional interviewer, and she has been able to recruit an excellent schedule of myeloma professionals. I am so impressed with her work I have asked her to co-author a blog post on the best resources and ways to obtain the information we all need to obtain the best multiple myeloma life expectancy prognosis. This article will be published within the next two weeks.

And as always, may God Bless your Myeloma Journey/ Gary Petersen

For more information on multiple myeloma go to the web site www.myelomasurvival.com or you can follow me on twitter at: https://twitter.com/grpetersen1

8 Comments

Want to Improve Multiple Myeloma Survival Rates and Life Expectancy? - SHOW ME THE MONEY!!! And the MMRF Does Just That.

The Allogeneic Transplant in Multiple Myeloma - Dr. Ravi VIj provided a FAIR and BALANCED review of the Allogeneic Transplant in Myeloma Treatment.

Beat the Multiple Myeloma Life Expectancy Prognosis - How to Educate Yourself by Jenny Ahlstrom and Gary Petersen

Multiple Myeloma Life Expectancy - The Allo, Is it a Cure or just a very Risky Treatment of Last Resort

Multiple Myeloma - There is a New Kid in Town (mPatient's Jenny Ahistron) That is Out to Improve Myeloma Life Expectancy by Educating the Myeloma Patient Community!

Author

Categories

Archives