Autologous Bone Marrow Transplantation - Blog Science Connections

Biology and Therapy of Multiple Myeloma
Bart Barlogie and Raymond
Alexanian
Multiple myeloma is a neoplasm of monoclonal well-differentiated B cells,
and its associated clinical symptoms result from bone destruction, anemia,
hypercalcemia, and renal failure. Melphalan and prednisone have been the
standard therapy for 20 years, providing initial responses in 50-60% of
patients. However, there are few complete remissions, and the median
survival time is only 2-3 years. Patients presenting with a small tumor mass
and achieving marked cytoreduction account for the majority of the 5-10% of
patients who survive up to 10 years, although they, too, ultimately succumb to
progressing disease.
CELLULAR BIOLOGY
At The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute
at Houston, we have studied the cellular biology of multiple myeloma in an
effort to understand better the considerable heterogeneity in the clinical
disease course, thus facilitating the selection of patients whose prognosis is
poor for novel therapeutic strategies. Most of these studies use flow
cytometry, a convenient method for quantitative tumor-cell description.
Myeloma plasma cells typically exhibit a hyperdiploid DNA content about
10-15% higher than that of normal diploid cells (1). As a reflection of the
plasma cells' commitment to protein production, their RMA content is usually
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