Trigger to myeloma relapse may be found

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Weill Medical College of Cornell University researchers in New York think they found the mechanism that triggers relapse in patients with multiple myeloma.

While available drugs can push the disease into temporary remission, fatal, uncontrolled cell division always re-emerges over time, and until now, the cellular mechanism driving this relapse has remained unclear, according senior researcher Dr. Selina Chen-Kiang, professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Weill Cornell Medical College.

Multiple myeloma originates deep in the bone marrow and is the second most common blood cancer. The disease is always fatal, with an average life expectancy after diagnosis of just three years.

"There are drugs that are geared to getting people into remission, but they ultimately fail because there are still cancer cells that have the potential for self-renewal -- they'll rise again and start dividing," says Chen-Kiang.

The findings were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology and published in Cancer Research.