LITTLE ROCK -- A gene researcher at
the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), where
researchers have achieved a survival rate for the rare and deadly
cancer multiple myeloma that is twice the overall average, is
among the first recipients of the Fund to Cure Myeloma.
An anonymous benefactor has
established the fund and appointed some of the world's leading
experts in multiple myeloma research to decide how to distribute
the monies over the next five years. The gift of $500,000 to UAMS
is one of the first the fund has made.
Although the median survival rate
for myeloma patients in the United States is roughly 2.5 to three
years, researchers at UAMS have achieved a median survival rate of
six to seven years, attracting so many patients that UAMS has
become the largest myeloma treatment and research center in the
world.
John Shaughnessy, Jr., Ph.D., at
UAMS will use the grant from the Fund to Cure Myeloma in his work
to identify genetic "profiles" for different variations
of the cancer. Shaughnessy is director of the Donna D. and Donald
M. Lambert Laboratory of Myeloma Genetics at UAMS's Myeloma
Institute for Research and Therapy.
The news magazine "U.S. News
and World Report" singled Shaughnessy out earlier this year
for his innovative genetic research, noting that he "has
already begun to make sense of the genetic chaos of multiple
myeloma."
Shaughnessy and other researchers
at UAMS are focusing on two issues: why some persons with multiple
myeloma live so much longer than others, and why the disease
almost always causes the patient's bones to literally
disintegrate.
Looking for clues about the causes
of multiple myeloma has been like "walking around in a dark
room with a pin light," Shaughnessy says. Now with gene
expression microarray technology, "we are using a
floodlight." Scientists use microarray technology to
determine which of the estimated 35,000 human genes are
"turned on" or turned off" in cancer cells.
The variability in myeloma survival
"is vast, with some patients succumbing within months while
others can live for a decade," Shaughnessy says. Currently
only 20 percent of this variability can be explained. The hope is
that scientists can link distinct "profiles" of
"on," or expressed, genes to variation in myeloma
patient outcomes. The profiles will help physicians match
treatments to individual patients, for so-called
"personalized medicine." Physicians could choose to use
experimental treatments for patients whose profiles suggest that
they will not live long on conventional therapy, according to
Shaughnessy.
A type of cancer that affects
plasma cells, multiple myeloma typically affects middle-aged or
elderly persons. Approximately 15,000 new cases are diagnosed each
year. There is no known cure for the disease, although lengthy
remissions can often be achieved. The immediate goal in treating
multiple myeloma is to get the disease under control and to keep
the patient in remission with a good quality of life for as long
as possible. Disease control can be complicated by a tendency for
myeloma cells to become resistant to chemotherapeutic agents. By
comparing the "profiles" of cells at diagnosis and at
relapse, Shaughnessy is also attempting to identify molecular
mechanisms of drug resistance.
UAMS is Arkansas's leading
institution for health-related research, with established groups
of scientists in most major fields of interest to the National
Institutes of Health. Several research groups at UAMS, in addition
to scientists in the Lambert Laboratory, are conducting studies in
genomics, the discipline that identifies genes, their
interactions, and their effects on biological processes, such as
the progress of different cancers.
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John Shaughnessy, Ph.D., of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences points to a highly
enlarged view of a gene array from a multiple myeloma tumor
sample. The lighter squares correspond to genes that are "turned
on" and distinct to persons with the disease. These genes
may prove useful in predicting response to treatment. (UAMS)
Click here
for larger image. Click here for print-quality resolution.
(7.5 mg).
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