Preventing Disease Progression from MGUS and Smoldering Myeloma with Dr. Irene Ghobrial, MD, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute

Preventing Disease Progression from MGUS and Smoldering Myeloma with Dr. Irene Ghobrial, MD, PhD, Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Event Description
Tell your musician friends to donate a song today on Songs For Life to raise funds for multiple myeloma research! Dr. Irene Ghobrial, MD, PhD Dana Farber Cancer Institute Interview Date: October 30
Dr. Irene Ghobrial, MD, PhD of the Dana Farber Cancer Center shares several new compounds that make the bone marrow microenvironment unfriendly to myeloma cells so they can't attach to bone, preventing painful bone damage. A new inhibitor by Noxxon blocks this growth by stopping SDF-1. Dr. Ghobrial describes how this works and shares that it is the first time a bone marrow environmental drug has shown great effect for a low tumor burden of myeloma cells. She shares a new center at Dana Farber called the Prevention of Progression for MGUS and smoldering myeloma patients with the goal to prevent disease progression and the discovery of a cure. She gives a preview of a way Dana Farber is approach this very small disease community of MGUS and smoldering myeloma - to offer future crowdsourcing blood and bone marrow samples, so that any patient at any location can donate their tissue samples in order to make discoveries for these early stage disease states. Another study will open soon at Dana Farber for high risk smoldering patients using elotuzumab and Revlimid. Her ultimate goal is to understand if smoldering patients achieve a cure if treated early enough. She explains another drug, similar to the Noxxon SDF-1 inhibitor called Plerixafor, which is called a CXCR4 antibody. It has similar activity and is being used with Velcade so the myeloma cells can't hide in the bone marrow. She also shares another clinical trial with a drug called TH-302 that leverages the harsher myeloma therapies ONLY when it sees cells that are low-oxygen. Cancer cells grow in low-oxygen environments, so the goal is to spare healthy cells while targeting cancerous cells. She explains the common question of bone damage - do the bones every repair themselves? The live mPatient Myeloma Radio podcast with Dr. Irene Ghobrial, MD, PhD,
Schedule & Agenda
Speakers & Moderators

Irene Ghobrial, MD, is a Professor at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Harvard Medical School and an associate member of the Broad Institute. She is Director of the Michele & Stephen Kirsch Laboratory and co-director of the Center for Prevention of Progression (CPOP) at DFCI. Additionally, she is the co-leader of the Blood Cancer Research Partnership (BCRP), a consortium for innovative clinical trials of community oncology sites coordinated by DFCI. Dr. Ghobrial’s research focuses on understanding mechanisms of tumor progression from early precursor conditions such as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering disease to symptomatic multiple myeloma and Waldenström Macroglobulinemia. She specifically focuses on the role of malignant bone marrow niche in regulating disease progression. She is interested in the development of new molecular/genomic markers that predict progression in precursor conditions which can identify patients who should be eligible for therapeutic interventions to prevent progression or potentially cure the disease at the early stages before clonal evolution occurs. She has authored or co-authored more than 250 publications and book chapters. She has received multiple awards including membership in the American Society of Clinical Investigation, the Robert A. Kyle Award for Research in Waldenström Macroglobulinemia, and the Mentor of the Year Award at DFCI in 2014. Dr. Ghobrial completed her hematology/oncology subspecialty training at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, MN and internal medicine training at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. She earned her medical degree from the Cairo School of Medicine in Egypt.

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 the HealthTree Foundation.
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