Description:

As of today multiple myeloma remains incurable disease. There have been tremendous advances in understanding the biology of the disease and many new drugs and regimes have made their way into the management of multiple myeloma. Unfortunately few patients are enjoying long-term treatment-free survival. Is it possible to cure multiple myeloma today? Can we design therapy that addresses the heterogeneity of the disease and eradicate most if not all of the myeloma clones? The three speakers we chose for this session should help us answer these questions.

Dr. Orfao will address the issue of minimal residual disease. What is minimal residual disease? What are the techniques used to identify it? What is the impact of minimal residual disease on the survival of symptomatic multiple myeloma patients?

Dr. Keats will address clonal heterogeneity and genomic instability. What do we know about clonal heterogeneity at disease presentation? What do we know about genomic instability? What are the impacts of clonal heterogeneity and genomic instability on therapy selection and treatment sequences/duration in the management of multiple myeloma?

Dr. Michor will describe mathematical models for curing this disease. What are Mathematical models for cure? How do we design them? How do we use our knowledge of heterogeneity and instability of differentiation states and varying sensitivities of these states to therapy? How do put them together in order cure multiple myeloma?