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Multiple myeloma is an aggressive form of plasma cell cancer that is often difficult to treat. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic have identified several mutations that may help doctors predict which patients will or will not respond to the therapeutic drug bortezomib (Velcade). This is very good news because having to determine the best treatment by trial and error can cost the patient time and health before the best treatment for that patient is determined.
In a recent interview, Leif Bergsagel, MD stated:
"Bortezomib seems to work in about one-third of patients who use it, but we have not been able to predict which ones," says the study's lead author, Leif Bergsagel, M.D., a hematologist at Mayo Clinic Arizona. "We now have identified a group that will likely respond because these nine mutations seem to be present in at least 25 percent of newly diagnosed patients."Now that we know the pathway the drug targets, and genetic mutations within this pathway that make patients respond better, we are working on a simple way to select those patients who are the best candidates for use of bortezomib," says Dr. Bergsagel.
These findings were presented at the American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting in Orlando on December 10, 2006. Dr. Leif Bergsagel from the Mayo Clinic in Arizona is the lead author on the study.