Does myeloma run in the family?
Ever since I began doing research on myeloma, one of my certainties–although with something like myeloma you can never be absolutely certain!!!–has been that myeloma is NOT a hereditary disease. Yes, of course, I’ve read about a few patients who had relatives with myeloma, but…only a few.
If you do an online search, you will find that not much is known about the causes of myeloma. A few known ones are things such as pesticide exposure, past exposure to radiation, genetic changes that turn our plasma cells into MM cells…stuff like that. The family connection seems to be a minor one…
Today...
Source: Margaret's Corner - February 2, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll inherited cancer myeloma Source Type: blogs
“The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM.” Part 2.
Back to the Dana-Farber study that I wrote about a couple of days ago.
The section titled “Therapeutic opportunities” is interesting. How to prevent progression, that is. As you can imagine, the chef’s daily special consists only of conventional treatments. For example, the authors make a reference to the Spanish study (Mateos et al) that I have repeatedly condemned here on the blog. The Spanish researchers–some with strong ties to the big pharmaceutical companies (hello???)–tested lenalidomide and dexamethasone on a group of SMM patients. The study claims to have prolonged progression-free survival and e...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 31, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM. Dana Farber high risk myeloma SMM Source Type: blogs
Has “ high risk ” become a new disease?
As I was working on the post I published yesterday, I ran into a very interesting 2015 editorial by a Finnish professor on the issue of HIGH RISK and decided it was worth a post of its own, before I go on and finnish, I mean, finish! the bone microenvironment post.
Here’s the link: goo.gl/CWAexK
Prof. Järvinen argues that “high risk” has become a disease today. That is, relatively healthy people can start seeing themselves as no longer relatively healthy. AND, he adds, “almost every treatment has inherent risks.”
Who can determine the threshold for “high risk”? Doctors? And what if patients di...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 30, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll high risk Prof. Järvinen Source Type: blogs
“ The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM. ”
Remember the post I wrote back in December 2014 about myeloma subpopulations and the bone marrow microenvironment? Probably not…so here’s the link: http://margaret.healthblogs.org/good-or-bad-for-myeloma/first-do-no-harm-myeloma-subpopulations/
The main point is that not much is known about the interactions between the myeloma subpopulations living in our bone marrow, how they compete for survival and so on…
Therefore, the only conclusion, in my opinion, is that going in with conventional bombs and blasting the heck out of this microenvironment doesn’t seem to be the best strategy for those of us with MGUS and ...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 29, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll The bone-marrow niche in MDS and MGUS: implications for AML and MM. Dana Farber myeloma SMM Source Type: blogs
Curcumin improves memory and mood, new UCLA study says
It’s always good to read about a study that confirms what you already know. Yes, very good indeedy!
Anyway, there isn’t much I can add to the UCLA press release, which is easy to read, btw, so here’s the link: goo.gl/TQL7TD
Enjoy!!! (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 25, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll UCLA curcumin Source Type: blogs
EBV and myeloma stem cells. Chapter 3
This study tells us there are two ways in which a virus, nothing more than a “parasite,” can infect its host cell: 1. actively, by causing “a lytic infection characterized by the release of new progeny virus particles, often upon the lysis of the host cell,” (lysis refers to the destruction of a cell, the host cell in this case), or 2. inactively, which occurs when the virus just sleeps, without reproducing itself.
“Reactivation” occurs when a sleeping virus wakes up and reproduces, stimulated by internal or external factors…but that gets into too much detail, so let’s skip that part.
Here’s anot...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 23, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll EBV Epstein-Barr myeloma Source Type: blogs
New … or rather, perhaps not so new: a “ new ” long-term follow-up study on MGUS
In conclusion…As a U.S. myeloma expert once told me, statistics are useful only to specialists who wish to compare the results of their own statistical studies. He told me that as far as patients are concerned, statistics are useless.
I concur. (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 22, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll cancer statistics Long-Term Follow-up of Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance myeloma Source Type: blogs
EBV and myeloma stem cells. Chapter 2.
One thing Dr. Biswas discovered is that the subset of EBV-positive (as opposed to the EBV-negative) myeloma cells are the blasted stem cells, which have CD19 on their surface. What does that mean? Simply that we’re not talking about plasma cells here, but about B-cells that have the ability to REPRODUCE themselves, turning into plasma cells (which do not have that ability, btw).
Confused? Well then, let’s have a look at something different.
On page 12, Dr. Biswas discusses the 90% percentage that I mentioned in my previous post. While EBV “is benign in acute stages and latent in chronic stages […], in some cas...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 18, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Dr. Sunetra Biswas EBV myeloma Source Type: blogs
More on EBV and myeloma stem cells
A few months ago, before all the kitten chaos began in our lives (read: when I had a bit more free time!), I came across a 2013 Johns Hopkins University Ph.D. thesis titled “Persistence of EBV in the cancer stem cells fraction of multiple myeloma,” by Sunetra Biswas. [Reminder: EBV is the acronym for Epstein-Barr Virus, about which I’ve written a bunch of posts, most recently in October 2017…A connection has finally been established between EBV and MM in SOME patients.]
I began reading, and drafting a post about, Dr. Biswas’ thesis, which is very interesting but also quite technical here and thereR...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 16, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll EBV Epstein-Barr myeloma stem cell Sunetra Biswas Source Type: blogs
Holly Butcher: her letter goes viral after she dies at age 27
Many thanks to Cynthia for posting about a letter written by a young Australian woman, Holly Butcher, who died on January 4. She had Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare type of bone cancer that usually affects young people and children.
I was quite touched by parts of it, so I decided to write a quick post. Before I forget, here’s the link to an Australian news article about Holly (and you can get to and read her full letter there, too): goo.gl/sLEYd8
In Holly’s letter, I recognized some of the feelings I myself have/have had…For instance, the irritation that I feel at times because my girlfriends don’t wa...
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 12, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Holly Butcher Source Type: blogs
“ When a medical ‘ cure ’ makes things much, much worse ”
That’s the title of a very interesting article I just read in the Smithsonian magazine.
Too bad the article doesn’t provide any examples from the cancer world, but I suppose it doesn’t have to, really…I mean, the point is really obvious as it is!
Anyway…
Here’s the link: goo.gl/PfxpMZ
Enjoy! (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 9, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Jeanne Lenzer Source Type: blogs
Dieneke in the news
Well, well, I am so pleased for Dieneke! Her myeloma-curcumin story is still in the news, even after all these months (I first reported on it in August).
But what surprised me was to discover (today) that the Italian news has also picked up her story, as you can see here: goo.gl/sCKzkA
And the Times, too (in addition to many British papers, of course): goo.gl/bnefDA
Well done, Dieneke! (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - January 4, 2018 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll curcumin Dieneke Ferguson myeloma Source Type: blogs
Touch of the flu … and carfilzomib
I began feeling a bit “off” right before Xmas…Fatigue (I mean, I couldn’t keep my eyes open…), immense fatigue…and a low-grade fever: those were my main symptoms. Nothing major, as you can see, but it was enough to slow me down at a time that is normally quite busy for me, including frenzied Xmas cookie baking and that sort of thing.
The low-grade fever turned into a proper fever after Xmas, so I gave up fighting it and just slept. And slept and slept. Then, a day or so ago, the fever was gone. The main symptom is gone, but I’m still super fatigued. Bummer.
That said, I’d muc...
Source: Margaret's Corner - December 31, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Source Type: blogs
Mummy with myeloma
I just read a fascinating bit of news. After examining two Egyptian mummies (a man and a woman who had died, respectively, in 1800 and 2000 BC), an international team determined that they both had cancer…The woman had breast cancer…and the man had multiple myeloma.
These are the oldest known cases of breast cancer and myeloma…
So myeloma is NOT a relatively recent type of cancer…That’s incredibly interesting, don’t you think? I thought so, anyway…
Here’s the link to the Science Daily article: goo.gl/tkW8T4
Well, well… (Source: Margaret's Corner)
Source: Margaret's Corner - December 22, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll Egyptian mummy myeloma Source Type: blogs
December test results
I had blood tests (and the Bence Jones 24-hour urine test) last week.
This afternoon I got my results. Here goes, in a nutshell:
My M-spike has gone down (it has actually been going down a wee bit for the past two tests, so this is the third “wee bit down”).
Total IgG is also down (for the second time, when compared to my last few tests).
My hemoglobin is in the normal range, even though my red blood cells are slightly low, but just slightly.
Everything else looks pretty much the same. Almost everything, certainly anything of importance, is a wee bit better compared to my most recent tests. For example, my mon...
Source: Margaret's Corner - December 13, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Margaret Tags: Blogroll curcumin ganoderma ganoderma lucidum myeloma reishi Source Type: blogs
