MCRI Radio Show - The next in our series. Let's find that cure for myeloma!

This past week, I met a woman on Twitter who lives in Salt Lake City and is heading into her first stem cell transplant. Another myeloma warrior in my neighborhood. I'm going to visit her on Sunday. I also found another woman on Facebook who is in Salt Lake City living with multiple myeloma. I just picked up Tom Brokaw's book where he talks about his multiple myeloma diagnosis and fight to get well. Is it me or does it seem like way too many people (growing numbers) are affected by multiple myeloma? So my response? Let's find that cure-- especially for high risk disease. And regardless of how aggressive myeloma starts out as, as time progresses, it will eventually become high risk if it isn't already. Because those pesky myeloma cells are wily and smart. But we can be smarter and stomp it out.

Here's the latest upcoming radio show in which my fellow myeloma warrior, Jenny Ahlstrom, is interviewing doctors who are on a quest to either cure myeloma or take one huge step forward in making it a permanently manageable disease. Join me in tuning in. And learn more by visiting www.myelomacrowd.org/mcri or www.myelomacrowd.org.

Myeloma Crowd's MCRI Radio Show - Which multiple myeloma cells are evading treatment? Learn more from Dr. Gareth Morgan, Dr. Niels Weinhold and Dr. Christoph Heuck from UAMS this Monday @ 11 am CST

Monday, May 18,  9 am PST, 10 am MST, 11 am CST, Noon EST
Call In by Phone to Listen Live: (347) 637-2631 or Listen Live Via Computer

Which myeloma cells are the most aggressive and resistant to treatment? Drs. Morgan, Weinhold and Heuck seek to understand where the most aggressive clones are coming from. Is it from clones that adapt the best to the bone marrow environment? Research is showing that patients with several different types of myeloma cells at diagnosis seem to have early relapse and shorter survival while patients with one dominant type of myeloma cell tend to do better.  Learn what the team is doing to find out which clones are the most aggressive and which therapies could actually induce stress and increase the mutation rate, leading to a more resistant myeloma clone.

Gareth Morgan, M.D. FRCP, FRCPath, Ph.D, Professor of Medicine, is the Director of the Myeloma Institute at UAMS.  He is also the deputy director of the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute at UAMS.  Dr. Morgan came to UAMS from The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research in London where he was a Professor of Haematology and Director of the Centre for Myeloma Research.

Dr. Morgan is an internationally recognized clinician scientist who works in the field of molecular genetics of blood cell cancers, in particular, multiple myeloma.  He is specifically interested in how this knowledge can improve the treatment of cancer.

Before coming to the Myeloma Institute, Dr. Morgan served as a professor of Hematology and director of the Centre for Myeloma Research at the Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research in London, Europe’s largest comprehensive cancer institute. He is also a founding director of the European Myeloma Network and has authored more than 450 peer-reviewed journals.

Dr. Niels Weinhold, PhD is Research Assistant Professor at UAMS. His field of study includes the genetics of multiple myeloma, minimal residual disease, and diagnostics in multiple myeloma. Prior to his coming to UAMS he was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine at the University of Heidelberg, in Germany.

Dr. Christoph Heuck, MD, is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Myeloma Institute for Research & Therapy.  He completed a hematology/oncology fellowship at Montefiore Medical Center and an Internal Medicine residency at Jacobi Medical Center, both in New York. Dr. Heuck is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. He received his medical degree in 2003 from Humboldt University in Berlin, graduating magna cum laude.

Dr. Heuck has conducted research related to molecular genetics of multiple myeloma and other cancers.  He is board certified in Internal Medicine and board eligible in Hematology and Oncology.  Dr. Heuck is a member of the American College of Physicians, American Medical Association, American Society of Clinical Oncologists and American Society of Hematology.