Researchers' discoveries yield new treatments for
multiple myeloma
by Robert Levy
Kenneth Anderson, M.D., has devoted his career to solving the mysteries of myeloma.
When astrophysicist Joseph Schwarz, Ph.D., was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 1984, he may have been tempted to pin his hopes on stardust.
The disease, in which the bone marrow fails to produce enough red and white blood cells and platelets, has no known cure. The standard treatment, chemotherapy, can quell the disease for a few years, but a relapse is almost inevitable.
Schwarz, who was in his late 30s at the time of his diagnosis, recalls his dissatisfaction with this prospect, his frustration at the lack of new therapies for the condition, and his excitement when he heard about a novel treatment being tested at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute by Kenneth Anderson, M.D.
"I'd been to one of the top myeloma experts in the country, who told me there was nothing new for this disease," says Schwarz, who is currently working at the European Southern Observatory in Munich, Germany. "But a doctor in Boston told me about a patient who had received a novel kind of bone marrow transplant at Dana-Farber. She had an aggressive form of myeloma, and nine months after the transplant, had no detectable signs of disease."
In a short time, Schwarz had signed up for the treatment, a clinical trial in which a portion of his bone marrow would be harvested and cleansed of cells that were crowding out normal blood-making cells. After he received high doses of chemotherapy to destroy his remaining marrow, the purified marrow was reinjected into his body, rebuilding his blood supply and immune system.
The transplant didn't cure Schwarz, but it did give the disease, in Schwarz's words, a "knock on the head." In the following years, he would have several relapses, be treated with interferon, undergo two stem cell transplants in six months, take the drug thalidomide and steroids, try a novel therapy developed by Anderson involving "monoclonal antibodies," and receive yet another transplant, this time with his sister's bone marrow.
"Patients come here because we're able to offer novel treatments that hold great promise in myeloma."
— Kenneth Anderson, M.D.
That Schwarz is alive and productive today is testimony to his perseverence and luck — and the concern and resourcefulness of his doctors. Though he has been treated by physicians in both the United States and Europe, a constant in his care has been Anderson, who directs the Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and Kraft Family Blood Donor Center at Dana-Farber. Whether serving as Schwarz's personal physician, a consultant to his physicians in Europe, or as a combination scientist/clinician/friend, Anderson has been an indispensible ally in Schwarz's long struggle with the disease.
"I'm lucky to be alive, in as good shape as I'm in, and to have had good doctors," reflects Schwarz. "Ken certainly leads that list. He's had new treatments to try, and he's always been perfectly straight with me; he doesn't condescend. Whatever questions I've had, and I've had a lot and asked some of them twice, he's always ready to answer. He's an incredibly warm, smart person."
Schwarz is unusual in the length of time he's survived with multiple myeloma, but he's not unusual in his reasons for seeking treatment at Dana-Farber, or in his assessment of Anderson. The Institute's reputation as a place where novel treatments for myeloma are being developed and tested in patients reaches literally around the world.
"Patients come here because we're able to offer novel treatments that hold great promise in myeloma," Anderson says. "Our work begins in the laboratory, where we're exploring the mechanisms that enable myeloma cells to grow and survive in the bone marrow. Our goal is to translate those findings into new therapies that can be tested in patients in clinical trials."
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