Myeloma Patient and Expert Roundtable Empowers Patients for Better Outcomes - Salt Lake City Round Table May 7th, 2016 image

Myeloma Patient and Expert Roundtable Empowers Patients for Better Outcomes - Salt Lake City Round Table May 7th, 2016

This event was not recorded
May 07, 2016
09:00AM - 03:00PM EDT
Doubletree Suites Hotel
110 W 600 S, Salt Lake City, UT 84101, USA
Overview

MYELOMA PATIENT & ADVOCATE ORGANIZES EVENT TO EDUCATE FELLOW MYELOMA SURVIVORS ON THEIR DISEASE. EVENT IN SALT LAKE CITY ON MAY 7 AT DOUBLETREE SUITES DOWNTOWN.

Top myeloma experts will discuss treating high-risk disease. Robust Q&A session to follow.

Salt Lake City, UT (April 21, 2016) – When wife and mother of six young children, Jenny Ahlstrom, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, the second most common blood cancer, she had one goal: to stay alive. Over the course of her treatment, which consisted of two stem cell transplants and high dose chemotherapy, she plotted how she could actively participate in her care and finding better treatments.

“Fighting cancer became my number one priority,” says Ahlstrom. “I knew that, for me, simply being a passive patient was not an option. So when I started feeling better, I went on a quest to get educated, advocate for better treatments, and become a voice for the myeloma community. That education is helping obtain my very best outcomes.”

It’s been some five years since diagnosis and Ahlstrom is furthering her work by hosting weekly radio programs with myeloma experts from around the world (to date, she has hosted more than 75 programs reaching one million listeners), launched an educational web site (www.myelomacrowd.org), and started a crowd source campaign to fund two promising clinical trials via the Myeloma Crowd Research Initiative (https://www.myelomacrowd.org/mcri/). 

SLC-Round-Tables-Logo-200x200The next step? Myeloma Crowd Round Tables on High-Risk Disease, the first of which is set to take place in Salt Lake City on Saturday, May 7 at the Doubletree Suites hotel downtown. The event is open to the public and is focused on patients and their caregivers, providing them with important information, treatment options, and a forum to ask questions and get answers straight from the experts.

“This event will focus on high-risk disease. Every patient, as their myeloma progresses, will end up with high-risk features so this topic is incredibly important,” says Ahlstrom. “And despite much progress made in myeloma, there is no standard treatment options. Becoming informed patients so that we are able to choose what’s best for us is critically important in our outcomes.”

The doctors featured on this panel are doctors Rafael Fonseca, MD of the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale (Arizona), Guido Tricot, MD, PhD of the University of Iowa, and Djordje Atanackovic, MD of the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The event costs $50 per person to attend, which includes lunch. For an Early Bird Registration $25 discount before May 1, use the discount code MYELOMA2016. Financial assistance is available by emailing info@crowdcare.org. There is a special room rate of $109 per night at the Doubletree Hotel Suites in Salt Lake City. 

Speakers & Moderators
Healthtree contact Rafael Fonseca, MD

Rafael Fonseca, MD

Rafael Fonseca, MD, is the Getz Family Professor of Cancer, Professor of Medicine, interim Executive Director of the Mayo Clinic Comprehensive Cancer Center, Director for Innovation and Transformational Relationships, and a consultant in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Dr. Fonseca’s practice has focused on the diagnosis and treatment of plasma cell disorders and leading the multiple myeloma team in its effort to understand the disease and its impact on patients. In his laboratory, Dr. Fonseca has led his team of researchers in concentrating on the genetic nature of the clonal cells of plasma cell disorders. He is also interested in myeloma bone disease, prognostic markers and development of new therapies. Throughout his training and career, Dr. Fonseca has received numerous awards and honors, including the Young Investigator Award in Hematology (Celgene – Achievement Awards for Clinical Research in Hematology), the Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Clinical Investigator Award, and the International Waldenström Macroglobulinemia Research Award. Most notably, he is a Mayo Clinic Distinguished Investigator, the highest academic distinction given to investigators at his institution. Dr. Fonseca holds memberships and serves in positions for organizations such as the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the American Society of Hematology, the American Association for Cancer Research, and the International Myeloma Society. His research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute (R01, P01, SPORE), the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the Multiple Myeloma Research Fund, and the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Fund, for which he also serves as a clinical investigator. Dr. Fonseca serves as reviewer and in editorial capacities for medical publications including Blood, Lancet, Nature Medicine, Cancer Cell, Leukemia, and the New England Journal of Medicine, among others. He is a frequent reviewer of grants and sits on the SPORE grant review panel. He has given many national and international presentations as a visiting professor and has authored more than 300 articles, book chapters, editorials, abstracts, and letters.
Healthtree contact Dr. Guido Tricot

Dr. Guido Tricot

Dr. Tricot's most recent clinical studies focus on not only attacking myeloma cells but also the microenvironment that supports the survival and growth of myeloma cells. His work aims at finding treatments that are non-cross-resistant with current chemotherapy and therefore can eradicate the drug-resistant myeloma cells. His work on detailed genetics of myeloma cells should allow individualized therapies to ensure the greatest efficacy, while minimizing toxicity. Over the last 15 years, the median survival for patients newly diagnosed with myeloma has, in large part due to this work, increased from 2.5 to more than 10 years. The complete remission rate has increased from 5% to 80% and one third of all patients are still in complete remission at 10 years. He received his medical degree from Catholic University of Leuven and has been in practice for more than 20 years.