The Hematology department of the Erasmus MC Cancer Institute has received a large grant of € 7 million from the American charity MMRF.
With the money from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, hematologists Prof Dr Pieter Sonneveld, Dr Annemiek Broijl and scientific researcher Tom Cupedo, will conduct research into multiple myeloma, a bone marrow cancer also known as Kahler's disease.
Acceleration
Although the treatment of multiple myeloma has accelerated in recent decades and many effective therapies are available to patients, the disease recurs over the years in virtually all patients. In a small group this even happens very quickly, says researcher Tom Cupedo.
Remission
'In most patients, initial remission occurs, after which the disease appears to have disappeared. But in a small group the disease returns quickly, within two years. We don't yet fully understand why that happens. Nor does it explain why the disease persists in the first place. The majority of patients undergo multiple therapies after diagnosis, which are effective, but after which the disease flares up again.'
Mutations
That is why the consortium will now conduct research at molecular tumor cell level into the cause of disease recurrence. There are two plausible explanations, Cupedo says. 'The first: mutations in the DNA of the tumor cells make the tumor cells resistant to the therapies. The second: there is something in the bone marrow in which the tumor cells grow that gives those tumor cells the opportunity to grow again. In the patients who do poorly, it will be a combination of the two,' predicts Cupedo.
Tumor material
To determine this, the researchers will sift through stored tumor material from patients from clinical trials down to the smallest molecules. 'We know how those patients responded to the therapy. That is why we can look at differences in the tumor cells and bone marrow cells of patients who responded well to their therapy and patients who responded poorly.'
Microscope
The consortium will use special imaging techniques, but will mainly look at the behavior of the genes in the tumor material using next-generation sequencing. The Erasmus MC Cancer Institute does not conduct the study alone: academic research centers from Würzburg, Germany, Turin, Italy and the Spanish cities of Salamanca and Santiago de Compostella are affiliated. Amsterdam UMC also participates in the consortium.
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