MD Anderson

We have been very lucky to be so close to MD Anderson. For the fifth year in a row, and the eighth time in the past 10 years, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center earned the No. 1 spot in U.S. News & World Report’s annual rankings of the best hospitals for cancer care. Since the survey began in 1990, MD Anderson has been ranked every year as one of the top two hospitals in the nation for cancer care. This Knowledge is so comforting that Dad could not be in a better place, with the disease that he does. This is there website on Multiple Myeloma to help you if you want detailed information or maps or even where to volunteer or get involved if you feel so inclined. We Are so Grateful to be where we are and as I am sure you all know this gives dad one more reason to think..(I've been corrected)..KNOW that Texas is the best place in the world. Lets kick cancers butt, ya'll!


MD Anderson Cancer Center Details

Eating To Starve Cancer

Eating to starve cancer? Wouldn’t that be great? And look at all the other anti-angiogenic substances in the pantry. Some might help. Along with the blog, I include Dr. Li’s often requested slide from the presentation on anti-angiogenic foods.  You’ll note a lot of foods we’ve have already been emphasizing:

• Blueberries
• Turmeric
• Raspberries
• Grapes
• Apples
• Kale and Bok Choy
• Cooked Tomatoes
• Red Wine

Dr. Li is the medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation:

http://www.angio.org/

According to Li, most cancers start as tiny clusters of malignant cells that remain dormant until they recruit new vessels to deliver oxygen and nutrients. Yet, after angiogenesis builds up steam, a cancer can expand like a wildfire—dividing 16,000 times in just two weeks.

Li also has a lot of other practical hints: dunking your tea bag to release more of the cancer- fighting nutrients, cooking tomatoes in olive oil to potentiate their advantages and chewing your greens well to release the nutrients. Li strongly endorses fermented soybean products such as miso (seven times the concentration of helpful compounds) and broccoli sprouts. He suggests trying to add one anti-angiogenic food to each meal.

I did find Dr. Li’s final talking point in the TED presentation particularly intriguing.

Here, he speaks of the importance of early intervention with diet before cancer takes hold. However, I wonder if this also might apply to myeloma patients in remission, nearly complete response or with smoldering myeloma.

Could anti-cancer foods (and limiting pro-angiogenic foods such as sugars and carbohydrates) make a bigger difference when the disease is not well established, or has been hammered down by a drug assault?

I think that would be in line with Dr. Li’s thinking. While, we don’t know his opinion, in a conversation in Atlantic Magazine, last March, Li was asked what was the big takeaway point he wanted everyone to hear relative to his work:

“Understanding that food is the chemotherapy we take three times per day is a game changer. We are learning that Mother Nature has imbued many foods–fruits, vegetables, herbs, seafoods, tea, coffee, even chocolate–with natural substances that can cut off the blood vessels that feed cancer and other diseases. Eating to starve cancer will pull the rug from under the cancer epidemic, and in a way that puts control in the hands of consumers, not doctors.”

Multiple Myeloma Interactive Tutorial

This is a wonderful website and interactive tool to better understand Multiple Myeloma. 

Interactive Tutorial

Surviving Multiple Myeloma

Multiple Myeloma Treatment Options

Treatment

Watchful Waiting
Induction Therapy
Stem Cell Transplant
People with multiple myeloma have many treatment options. The options are watchful waiting, induction therapy, and stem cell transplant. Sometimes a combination of methods is used.
Radiation therapy is used sometimes to treat painful bone disease. It may be used alone or along with other therapies. See the Supportive Care section to learn about ways to relieve pain.
The choice of treatment depends mainly on how advanced the disease is and whether you have symptoms. If you have multiple myeloma without symptoms (smoldering myeloma), you may not need cancer treatment right away. The doctor monitors your health closely (watchful waiting) so that treatment can start when you begin to have symptoms.
If you have symptoms, you will likely get induction therapy. Sometimes a stem cell transplant is part of the treatment plan.
When treatment for myeloma is needed, it can often control the disease and its symptoms. People may receive therapy to help keep the cancer in remission, but myeloma can seldom be cured. Because standard treatment may not control myeloma, you may want to talk to your doctor about taking part in a clinical trial. Clinical trials are research studies of new treatment methods. See the Taking Part in Cancer Research section.

Watchful Waiting

People with smoldering myeloma or Stage I myeloma may be able to put off having cancer treatment. By delaying treatment, you can avoid the side effects of treatment until you have symptoms. If you and your doctor agree that watchful waiting is a good idea, you will have regular checkups (such as every 3 months). You will receive treatment if symptoms occur.
Although watchful waiting avoids or delays the side effects of cancer treatment, this choice has risks. In some cases, it may reduce the chance to control myeloma before it gets worse.
You may decide against watchful waiting if you don't want to live with untreated myeloma. If you choose watchful waiting but grow concerned later, you should discuss your feelings with your doctor. Another approach is an option in most cases.

You may want to ask your doctor these questions before choosing watchful waiting:

• If I choose watchful waiting, can I change my mind later on?
• Will the cancer be harder to treat later?
• How often will I have checkups?
• Between checkups, what problems should I tell you about?

Induction Therapy

Many different types of drugs are used to treat myeloma. People often receive a combination of drugs, and many different combinations are used to treat myeloma. Each type of drug kills cancer cells in a different way:

• Chemotherapy: Chemotherapy kills fast-growing myeloma cells, but the drug can also harm normal cells that divide rapidly
• Targeted therapy: Targeted therapies use drugs that block the growth of myeloma cells. The targeted therapy blocks the action of an abnormal protein that stimulates the growth of myeloma cells.
• Steroids: Some steroids have antitumor effects. It is thought that steroids can trigger the death of myeloma cells. A steroid may be used alone or with other drugs to treat myeloma.

You may receive the drugs by mouth or through a vein (IV). The treatment usually takes place in an outpatient part of the hospital, at your doctor's office, or at home. Some people may need to stay in the hospital for treatment.
The side effects depend mainly on which drugs are given and how much:

• Blood cells: When a drug used for myeloma treatment lowers the levels of healthy blood cells, you're more likely to get infections, bruise or bleed easily, and feel very weak and tired. Your health care team will check for low levels of blood cells. If your levels are low, your health care team may stop therapy for a while or reduce the dose of drug. There are also medicines that can help your body make new blood cells.
• Cells in hair roots: Chemotherapy may cause hair loss. If you lose your hair, it will grow back, but it may be somewhat different in color and texture.
• Cells that line the digestive tract: Chemotherapy and targeted therapy can cause poor appetite, nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, or mouth and lip sores. Ask your health care team about medicines and other ways to help you cope with these problems.

The drugs used for myeloma may also cause dizziness, drowsiness, numbness or tingling in hands or feet, and low blood pressure. Most of these problems go away when treatment ends. You may find it helpful to read the NCI booklet Chemotherapy and You. You may also want to read the NCI fact sheet Targeted Cancer Therapies.

You may want to ask your doctor these questions before having induction therapy:

• Which drugs will I get? What will the treatment do?
• When will treatment start? When will it end? How often will I have treatments?
• Where will I go for treatment? Will I have to stay in the hospital?
• Will I have side effects during treatment? What side effects should I tell you about? Can I prevent or treat any of these side effects?
• Will there be lasting side effects? How long will they last? What can I do about them?
• How often will I need checkups?

Stem Cell Transplant

Many people with multiple myeloma may get a stem cell transplant. A stem cell transplant allows you to be treated with high doses of drugs. The high doses destroy both myeloma cells and normal blood cells in the bone marrow. After you receive high-dose treatment, you receive healthy stem cells through a vein. (It's like getting a blood transfusion.) New blood cells develop from the transplanted stem cells. The new blood cells replace the ones that were destroyed by treatment. Stem cell transplants take place in the hospital. Some people with myeloma have two or more transplants.
Stem cells may come from you or from someone who donates their stem cells to you:

• From you: An autologous stem cell transplant uses your own stem cells. Before you get the high-dose chemotherapy, your stem cells are removed. The cells may be treated to kill any myeloma cells present. Your stem cells are frozen and stored. After you receive high-dose chemotherapy, the stored stem cells are thawed and returned to you.
• From a family member or other donor: An allogeneic stem cell transplant uses healthy stem cells from a donor. Your brother, sister, or parent may be the donor. Sometimes the stem cells come from a donor who isn't related. Doctors use blood tests to be sure the donor's cells match your cells. Allogeneic stem cell transplants are under study for the treatment of multiple myeloma.
• From your identical twin: If you have an identical twin, a syngeneic stem cell transplant uses stem cells from your healthy twin.

There are two ways to get stem cells for people with myeloma. They usually come from the blood (peripheral blood stem cell transplant). Or they can come from the bone marrow (bone marrow transplant).
After a stem cell transplant, you may stay in the hospital for several weeks or months. You'll be at risk for infections because of the large doses of chemotherapy you received. In time, the transplanted stem cells will begin to produce healthy blood cells.
You may find it helpful to read the NCI fact sheet Bone Marrow Transplantation and Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation.

What is Multiple Myeloma

What is Multiple Myeloma?

Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer. Cancer is a group of many related diseases. Myeloma is a cancer that starts in plasma cells, a type of white blood cell. It's the most common type of plasma cell cancer.

Normal Blood Cells

Most blood cells develop from cells in the bone marrow called stem cells. Bone marrow is the soft material in the center of most bones.
Stem cells mature into different types of blood cells. Each type has a special job:

• White blood cells help fight infection. There are several types of white blood cells.
• Red blood cells carry oxygen to tissues throughout the body.
• Platelets help form blood clots that control bleeding.

Plasma cells are white blood cells that make antibodies. Antibodies are part of the immune system. They work with other parts of the immune system to help protect the body from germs and other harmful substances. Each type of plasma cell makes a different antibody.

Normal plasma cells help protect the body from germs and other harmful substances.

Myeloma Cells

Myeloma, like other cancers, begins in cells. In cancer, new cells form when the body doesn't need them, and old or damaged cells don't die when they should. These extra cells can form a mass of tissue called a growth or tumor.
Myeloma begins when a plasma cell becomes abnormal. The abnormal cell divides to make copies of itself. The new cells divide again and again, making more and more abnormal cells. These abnormal plasma cells are called myeloma cells.
In time, myeloma cells collect in the bone marrow. They may damage the solid part of the bone. When myeloma cells collect in several of your bones, the disease is called "multiple myeloma." This disease may also harm other tissues and organs, such as the kidneys.
Myeloma cells make antibodies called M proteins and other proteins. These proteins can collect in the blood, urine, and organs.

Myeloma cell (abnormal plasma cell) making M proteins.