On November 18, the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) announced a global research partnership that will study cancers affecting the immune system, including multiple myeloma. The collaboration is between IMF Chairman Brian G.M. Durie, M.D., of the United States; Luc Montagnier, M.D., co-recipient of the 2008 Nobel Prize in medicine, of France; and Howard Urnovitz, Ph.D., CEO of Chronix Biomedical, of Germany.

Dr. Montagnier’s pioneering research, which discovered the virus that causes AIDS, will lay the groundwork for the study, as both AIDS and multiple myeloma involve white blood cells of the immune system and cannot currently be cured.

Meanwhile, Dr. Urnovitz’s research assists in diagnosis of cancer by studying the genetic changes that take place over the course of the disease.

The partnership will focus on understanding the role of circulating nucleic acids in disease. Circulating nucleic acids are DNA and RNA genomic sequences that travel in the blood stream. Drs. Durie and Urnovitz have identified specific nucleic acids circulating in the blood of multiple myeloma patients that increase or decrease as the cancer moves in and out of remission.

Specific nucleic acids are collectively referred to as a biomarker, a DNA fragment that causes disease or is associated with disease susceptibility. Dr. Montagnier will assist in contributing new technology to detect biomarkers related to infectious agents in the patient’s bloodstream.

“Tests for these DNA sequences circulating in the blood may become an important tool for physicians, telling them when disease is starting to recur so they know when to intervene,” said Dr. Durie.

Durie added, “A greater understanding of these DNA sequences may also tell us whether we should be attacking the cancer cells, as we do now, or whether we should be looking for an underlying agent that may be the cause of the cancer and its recurrence.”

The researchers hope that additional studies on the newly-discovered multiple myeloma biomarkers will uncover the cause of multiple myeloma, as well as develop a promising new approach to cancer treatment and prevention.

Source: International Myeloma Foundation