The charity organisation Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C) has just announced that $10 million is going to be given to a team of researchers to fund their work to improve multiple myeloma diagnoses, reports kait8.
Multiple myeloma is a form of cancer that affects the bone marrow. It often occurs in many different areas of the body at once, such as the skull, spine, ribs, and pelvis. The disease is most common in men, those over sixty, people of African descent, and those with a family history of the illness. Myeloma can be a particularly dangerous form of cancer because its lack of early symptoms means that it’s often not caught until has already reached a late stage. After the disease has significantly progressed, people affected may experience tenderness in their bones, kidney problems, recurrent infections, bone fractures, and anaemia that manifests as tiredness, shortness of breath, and weakness. Very few people recover from the illness, and treatment focuses on slowing its progression and managing symptoms.
Early diagnosis is therefore crucial for improving the prognosis for patients with myeloma, but this can be difficult due to the lack of early symptoms. The new SU2C ‘Dream Team’ will use the $10 million award to tackle this problem. They have announced their plans to research precursor conditions that are significant risk factors for the development of myeloma. That way, patients who display the high-risk markers can be carefully monitored so that doctors catch myeloma as soon as it first appears and intervene. Furthermore, the team will work on treatments that can be taken by people with the high-risk precursor or early disease stages.
