Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow. Proteasome inhibitor drugs such as Velcade have proven effective at initially treating the disease, but even in patients who appeared to be in complete remission is always seemed to come back.
Turns out, that’s because it’s only mature myeloma cells that are sensitive to proteasome inhibition; the progenitor cells are unaffected by the drug, leaving them free to proliferate and mature, causing a resurgence of the disease. Which means that proteasome inhibitors will never, on their own, be able to fully cure multiple myeloma.
Knowing the cause of the treatment failure, new drugs, or existing drugs able to target the progenitor cells, can now be sought that will be able to target the progenitor cells.
Press release: http://bit.ly/1azB1eS
Image: Histopathological image of multiple myoloma. Smear preparation of bone marrow aspirate stained with May-Grünwald-Giemsa procedure. It doest not represent a histopathologic image but essentially helps understand hematopathology. Wikimedia Commons
#cancerresearch #myeloma #multiplemyeloma