Dana-Farber Cancer Institute research shows elevated rates of a blood cancer precursor condition in groups at high risk for multiple myeloma. Dr. Irene Ghobrial and Dr. Habib El-Khoury detail the first findings from the PROMISE study presented at ASH 2021.
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multiple myeloma is incurable and the second most common blood cancer in the United States with older black americans or people with immediate family members with a current or past blood cancer at higher risk. Can we screen for those blood cancers? And if we find them early, if we treat them early we can make a difference and change the survival of those patients. And indeed we want to close that gap because we know that the survival in black americans for myeloma Is much worse compared to the White Population. Dana Farber Cancer Institute's Dr. Irene Gabrielle leads the promise study which is enrolling 30,000 people who are considered high risk for multiple myeloma. The first results from the study, which launched in 2019 shows these high risk adults may benefit from screening with a simple blood test. The screening is looking for something called monoclonal grandma apathy of undetermined significance or M. Gus gus is considered a precursor condition for multiple myeloma. We saw rates of em goes almost two folds higher than the general population, looking around 6%. And now when testing with more sensitive assays, the prevalence of Malcolm Ganapathy is increased to somewhere around 13 up to 17%. Dana Farber's dr Habib El Corey is presenting the results at the 2021 american society of hematology. Meeting. The initial results include the largest cohort of black americans to be recruited for a myeloma screening study, He says they also ran the test results, the rain. More sensitive test that showed upwards of 40% of participants with elevated monoclonal proteins. These proteins are the defining feature of us and we need to understand all of the significance of those monoclonal proteins and what happens with them all. Study participants who test positive for MGA's are referred to medical experts for further testing and follow up researchers say. Even though a small percentage of people positive for em Gus go on to develop multiple myeloma, there are still major benefits to knowing about the condition as it has been linked to other conditions, including other types of blood cancers and heart attacks. We know that almost every patient who comes to us and has symptoms of myeloma must have had the precursor MGA's for 10 years, 20 years before. And wouldn't it be amazing if we can screen for it? There is still a lot to better understand here, but hopefully that someday this is going to push us towards a practice where myeloma and its related conditions are cured by a prevention
