Sunday, November 2, 2014

New Clinic Focuses on Why Some Conditions Become Cancer While Others Don’t

New Clinic Focuses on Why Some Conditions Become Cancer While Others Don’t

Insight: News and Information from Dana-Farber

"Thousands of people learn each year – usually after a routine blood test – that they have a condition that may develop into a blood cancer such as leukemia, lymphoma or multiple myeloma. The news is often followed by an equally surprising addendum: the condition won’t be treated until it becomes a full-fledged cancer.
Robert Soiffer, MD,
Robert Soiffer, MD, chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at DF/BWCC and co-principal investigator at the BCPC
The lack of treatments for such “precursor conditions” places patients in an awkward limbo: seemingly healthy but waiting for their disease to progress to the point where it’s treatable. Scientists have puzzled over why some people with these conditions go on to develop cancer quickly while others never do, and whether treatment could arrest the disease at the precursor stage.
Advances in genomic technology have given researchers the tools to study the switch from precursor condition to cancer at unprecedented depth. By understanding the fundamental changes that occur in cells’ DNA – and when those changes occur – investigators hope to break the process down to its key components and, ultimately, develop targeted therapies capable of bringing the process to a halt.
To lead that effort at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center (DF/BWCC), researchers have joined to create the Blood Cancer Prevention of Progression Clinic (BCPC), the first such facility in the United States. Comprised of experts in a variety of hematological (blood) disorders, the clinic has begun collecting tissue samples from patients with precursor conditions and from those with advanced disease. The samples will be analyzed to tease out genomic differences between early- and later-stage disorders, and identify which ones lead the march toward cancer.
“In cancer, we’re always looking to diagnose malignancies in their earliest stages, when they often can be treated successfully,” says Robert Soiffer, MD, chief of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies at DF/BWCC and co-principal investigator at the BCPC. “In many hematologic malignancies and disorders, precursor conditions provide this kind of advance notice. The challenge now is to use this knowledge to our advantage – to learn how to ‘read’ the tissue of patients with precursor conditions to determine which cases are likely to advance and which can benefit from early treatment.”

Precursor conditions take a variety of forms and go by a variety of names.  Early myelodysplastic syndrome, a disease in which the bone marrow fails to make enough healthy blood cells, is often a precursor of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Myeloproliferative neoplasms, growths that cause the bone marrow to produce too many blood cells, can also lead to AML. Smoldering multiple myeloma, which occurs when abnormal plasma cells arise in the bone marrow, is often a predecessor of multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer.
Irene Ghobrial, MD, co-principal investigator at the CBPC
Irene Ghobrial, MD, medical oncologist in the DF/BWCC Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center, director of the Michele & Stephen Kirsch Laboratory, and co-principal investigator at Dana-Farber’s BCPC
Beyond their common identity as heralds of cancer, precursor conditions differ in how likely they are to progress to cancer, how quickly they will do so, and how they behave from one patient to another. Smoldering myeloma, for example, has a 50 percent chance of progressing to myeloma in two to three years, whereas a condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance has only a one percent chance, annually, of advancing to a cancer such as myeloma, lymphoma, orWaldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia, says BCPC co-principal investigator Irene Ghobrial, MD, medical oncologist in the DF/BWCC Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and director of the Michele & Stephen Kirsch Laboratory at Dana-Farber. She and Soiffer are joined by David Steensma, MD, and Benjamin Ebert, MD, PhD, both of the DF/BWCC Adult Leukemia Program, as the new clinic’s co-principal investigators.
“At this point, we don’t have a reliable way of determining which patients’ conditions are likely to progress and which are likely to remain stable,” Ghobrial remarks. “We’re hoping that research at the BCPC will enable us to better determine who is at greatest risk of progression and are the best candidates for treatment.”

8 comments:

  1. Elizabeth,
    Sounds like they are doing good work up at Dana-Farber. I am hoping all is going well with you and your smoldering m. I have passed my recent tests at MIRT with some concern although the only real one is some bad translocations of my 14 and 16 chromosomes. It is hard, as you know very well, too be in this watchful waiting attitude all the time.
    How are you doing lately?
    Keith

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Keith! I'm sorry to hear about the translocation. What did your dooctor have to say about it? Are you still on "watch and wait" and zometa infusions?

      I'm doing well, my 3 month check up is coming up soon. Fingers crossed for stability!

      Take care,
      Elizaeth

      Delete
  2. Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia Herbal Remedy is one of the natural treatments recommended by Natural Herbs Clinic. This is the useful Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia treatment option that works with its natural ingredients to fight Waldenstrom's Macroglobulinemia.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sounds like they are doing good work up at Dana-Farber. I am hoping all is going well with you and your smoldering m. I have passed my recent tests at MIRT with some concern although the only real one is some bad translocations of my 14 and 16 chromosomes.

    ทางบ้าน

    ReplyDelete
  4. ALL THANKS TO DR WILLIAMS
    I was diagnosed of myeloma in 2011, I have tried all possible means to get cure but all my effort proved abortive, until a friend of mine introduced me to a herbal doctor , who prepare herbal medicine to cure different kind of diseases including myeloma , when i contacted this herbal doctor via his email, he sent me the myeloma herbal medicine via courier service, when i received the herbal medicine he gave me step by step instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed by Dr Williams i was totally cured from this disease within 1 months of usage. any body with similar problem can Contact this great herbal doctor via his email drwilliams098675@gmail.com for advice and for his product,and thanks to you admin for such an informative blog.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm 15 years old. I was born with HIV my mother passed away because of the HIV infection And I regret why i never met Dr Itua he could have cured my mum for me because as a single mother it was very hard for my mother I came across Dr itua healing words online about how he cure different disease in different races diseases like HIV/Aids Herpes,Parkison,Asthma,Copd,Epilepsy,Shingles,Cold Sore,Infertility, Chronic Fatigues Syndrome,Fibromyalgia,Love Spell,Prostate Cancer,Lung Cancer,Breast Cancer,Blood Cancer,Colo-Rectal Cancer,Love Spell,Weak Erection,Breast Enlargment,Penis Enlargment,Hpv,Diabetes Hepatitis even Cancer I was so excited but frighten at same time because I haven't come across such thing article online then I contacted Dr Itua on Mail drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com/ info@drituaherbalcenter.com. I also chat with him on what's app +2348149277967 he tells me how it works then I tell him I want to proceed I paid him so swiftly Colorado post office I receive my herbal medicine within 4/5 working days he gave me guild lines to follow and here am I living healthy again can imagine how god use men to manifest his works am I writing in all articles online to spread the god work of Dr Itua Herbal Medicine,He's a Great Man.

    ReplyDelete
  6. ALL THANKS TO DR WILLIAMS
    I was diagnosed of myeloma in 2011, I have tried all possible means to get cure but all my effort proved abortive, until a friend of mine introduced me to a herbal doctor , who prepare herbal medicine to cure different kind of diseases including myeloma , when i contacted this herbal doctor via his email, he sent me the myeloma herbal medicine via courier service, when i received the herbal medicine he gave me step by step instructions on how to apply it, when i applied it as instructed by Dr Williams i was totally cured from this disease within 1 months of usage. any body with similar problem can Contact this great herbal doctor via his email drwilliams098675@gmail.com for advice and for his product,and thanks to you admin for such an informative blog.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm 15 years old. I was born with HIV my mother passed away because of the HIV infection And I regret why i never met Dr Itua he could have cured my mum for me because as a single mother it was very hard for my mother I came across Dr itua healing words online about how he cure different disease in different races diseases like HIV/Aids Herpes,Parkison,Asthma,Autism,Copd,Epilepsy,Shingles,Cold Sore,Infertility, Chronic Fatigues Syndrome,Fibromyalgia,Love Spell,Prostate Cancer,Lung Cancer,Glaucoma.,psoriasis, Cataracts,Macular degeneration,Cardiovascular disease,Lung disease.Enlarged prostate,Osteoporosis.Alzheimer's disease,psoriasis,
    Dementia.,Tach Disease,Breast Cancer,Blood Cancer,Colo-Rectal Cancer,Love Spell,Chronic Diarrhea,Ataxia,Arthritis,Amyotrophic Lateral Scoliosis,Fibromyalgia,Fluoroquinolone Toxicity
    Syndrome Fibrodysplasia Ossificans ProgresSclerosis,Weak Erection,Breast Enlargment,Penis Enlargment,Hpv,measles, tetanus, whooping cough, tuberculosis, polio and diphtheria)Diabetes Hepatitis even Cancer I was so excited but frighten at same time because I haven't come across such thing article online then I contacted Dr Itua on Mail drituaherbalcenter@gmail.com/ . I also chat with him on what's app +2348149277967 he tells me how it works then I tell him I want to proceed I paid him so swiftly Colorado post office I receive my herbal medicine within 4/5 working days he gave me guild lines to follow and here am I living healthy again can imagine how god use men to manifest his works am I writing in all articles online to spread the god work of Dr Itua Herbal Medicine,He's a Great Man.

    ReplyDelete