Many patients with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, eventually develop resistance to one treatment after another. That's in part because cancer stem cells drive the disease cells that continually self-renew. If a therapy can't completely destroy these malignant stem cells, the cancer is likely to keep coming back.
Jan 15 2021 Read 639 Times
A license agreement with two Netherlands Institutes enabling development of a novel clinical laboratory test for minimal residual disease (MRD) status directly on serum samples of multiple myeloma patients has been announced by French company Sebia.
The partnership with Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam and the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, aims to offer a more accessible and sensitive MRD test based on serum-protein electrophoresis (SPE), immunofixation and free light chains. These techniques are recommended by the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG). The specific terms of the agreement have not been disclosed.
“Very high sensitivity MRD assessment in blood will revolutionise patients’ myeloma management and speed up therapeutic innovations. This unique personalised targeted mass spectrometry technology brings unprecedented clinical value in fighting myeloma,” said Pierre Sonigo, chief scientific officer at Se
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New $160,000 drug for multiple myeloma blood cancer to be added to PBS at a cost to patients of $480
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DecDecember 2020 at 3:35am
Professor Miles Prince said the drug could allow patients to go years without needing further treatment.
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More than 1,000 patients with an incurable type of blood cancer are expected to benefit from a completely new treatment that will be subsidised by the Federal Government in the new year.
Key points:
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that causes about 1,000 deaths in Australia each year
The drug Darzalex works by binding to the cancerous cells and allowing them to be destroyed