Founded in 1989 by Dr. Bart Barlogie, the Myeloma Center program has grown from a unique initiative focused on multiple myeloma, which, at the time, received only minimal attention and had a dismal survival record, into a high-patient-volume center renowned for excellence in research and patient care and greatly improved survival.
The Myeloma Center was the first to:
- use tandem peripheral blood stem cell transplants (also known as bone marrow transplants)
- perform transplants on an outpatient basis
- safely transplant patients age 70 and above
- introduce thalidomide as anti-angiogenesis therapy
- identify molecular subgroups of myeloma
- develop distinct treatment strategies for high-risk and low-risk myeloma, as defined by gene expression profiling
An enduring hallmark of the Myeloma Center has been a program of well-designed clinical trials that challenge the traditional body of thought on disease treatment in order to improve outcomes. Our long-term follow-up on patients provides a large amount of statistically valid data critical for developing curative therapies.
Facts and Firsts
The Myeloma Center has pioneered novel advances in diagnosing and treating myeloma and related diseases, including Castleman Disease, Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia, POEMS Syndrome, and Amyloidosis. The following is a list of just some of the breakthroughs and “firsts” at the Myeloma Center.
1989 Introduced Tandem Transplant approach
1991 First outpatient stem cell transplant
1993 Awarded first-ever Program Project grant for myeloma from the National Cancer Institute
1995 Created prediction model for stem cell collection
1996 Discovered “graft versus myeloma” effect in allogeneic transplantation
1997 Introduced Thalidomide as an anti-angiogenesis treatment
1998 First to utilize PET scan for diagnosis and assessment of treatment response
1998 Created SCID-hu mouse model for growing patient myeloma cells
1998 Second total therapy trial (Total Therapy II) opened; 668 patients were enrolled
1999 Lambert Laboratory for Molecular Genetics was established
1999 First to utilize Gene Expression Profiling (GEP) to characterize disease
2002 Identified myeloma genes using GEP and developed gene-based classification of myeloma
2004 Performed 5,000th stem cell transplant
2004 Discovered that the protein coding gene DKK-1 contributes to bone destruction
2006 Identified seven molecular genetic subtypes of myeloma and their bearing on prognosis
2007 Nancy and Stephen Grand Laboratory for Myeloma Proteomics was established
2007 Discovered that expression of 17 specific genes can be used to predict response to therapy
2007 First to use GEP for risk stratification and assignment to therapy
2008 Total Therapy IV and Total Therapy V open
2008 Total Therapy IV is the first clinical trial for low-risk myeloma as defined by GEP
2008 Total Therapy V is the first clinical trial for high-risk myeloma as defined by GEP
2009 Total Therapy VI for previously treated but not transplanted patients opens
2009 Gregory R. Pacheco Lab for Castleman Disease Research was established
2009 Discovered that 14 genes are differently expressed by two subgroups of high-risk myeloma
2011 Expanded Natural Killer Cell treatment protocol for patients with high-risk relapsed myeloma was initiated
2011 10,000th patient treated
2012 Developed and validated genomic signatures for predicting response to treatment
2013 Updated analyses of Total Therapy I, II and III trials indicate success in using myeloma-effective agents up front to prevent outgrowth of resistant tumor cells that account for relapses
2014 Determined that infusion of large numbers of expanded Natural Killer Cells is feasible and safe
2014 10+ year follow-up indicates that cure is achievable for patients with low-risk myeloma
2015 Determined that four genes predict high risk of progression from smoldering to active myeloma.