Robert Kyle, MD Mayo Clinic Rochester Interview Date: September 16, 2016 

 Dr. Kyle shares the story about his early discovery of multiple myeloma precursor conditions in the mid-1960s. He was able to make these discoveries because the Mayo Clinic had access to decade-long data on its patients. In fact, he has been saving myeloma data for over 55 years! Dr. Kyle describes the definition of smoldering myeloma and their ability to predict 80% if patients have high-risk smoldering myeloma (or disease that will likely progress to active myeloma). Treatment for high-risk smoldering myeloma is now becoming the norm, but he always encourages high-risk smoldering patients to receive treatment in clinical studies because it is the only way to validate the best treatment approaches. He sees promise in using immunotherapy for smoldering patients, but says that leveraging the immune system is not an easy task. Dr. Kyle tells us that the most important thing for smoldering myeloma patients is to be checked frequently for progression. 

Thanks to our episode sponsor, Takeda Oncology