Myeloma Crowd Research Initiative: Fitness to Relieve Side Effects and Prevent Smoldering Myeloma Progression with Jens Hillengass, MD, Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center

Posted: Nov 09, 2020

Can fitness reduce myeloma side effects or slow progression in smoldering myeloma to active myeloma?

In his practice, Dr. Jens Hillengass was asked by his myeloma patients if they could return to normal fitness activities following their treatment (biking, gardening, going to the gym, etc.) Bone damage is always a concern for myeloma patients, so he began his own fitness study at Roswell Park to measure whether physical activity could reduce the side effects of myeloma and myeloma treatment because he believes that exercise has "positive effects on bone stability, immune fitness, mental health, fatigue, resilience and dealing with treatment side effects."

Dr. Hillengass is now creating a study to identify if fitness has an impact to slow or prevent the progression in smoldering myeloma patients. The study is in the formation process but will provide the technology for smoldering myeloma patients to track their fitness. Levels of activity will be tracked and correlated to disease progression. HealthTree will facilitate the study for a larger smoldering myeloma patient group than would be possible at a single facility.

A pilot study of 30-40 smoldering patients will be run in early 2021 and a larger study will begin mid-2021.

Please donate to this important study and consider joining the study if you have smoldering myeloma. The results will help smoldering myeloma and all multiple myeloma patients understand how fitness impacts disease progression.

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Donate to the MCRI and fitness study

Matching Gifts

Did you know that many companies offer a matching gift program to encourage philanthropy among the employees? By simply completing a matching gift form online you may be able to double, or even triple, the impact of your donation! Contributions of any amount help contribute and fund groundbreaking research for high-risk diseases.

Use the search field below to see if your employee participants in the matching gift program. For questions regarding your matching gift, please email matching@crowdcare.org.

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The CrowdCare Foundation (now named the HealthTree Foundation) and Myeloma Crowd is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit, tax ID 45-5354811.

about the author
Jennifer Ahlstrom

Myeloma survivor, patient advocate, wife, mom of 6. Believer that patients can help accelerate a cure by weighing in and participating in clinical research. Founder of HealthTree Foundation (formerly Myeloma Crowd).