I know science is for scientists.  And medicine is for medical professionals.

But to be of benefit in our health care system, science and medicine must reach the end consumer -- people.  Regular, average, ordinary, everyday people.   People with feelings who are sometimes struggling to cope with a very real threat to their ability to live a quality life, or to live at all.

For those people, the words of science and medicine matter.  They help describe circumstances and set expectations.

Choosing words carefully can make a difference for people.

Frontline caregivers …

Korean researchers recently found that the percentage of cancerous plasma cells in the bone marrow, measured on day 14 post transplant, may predict disease progression in multiple myeloma patients following high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation.

However, because their study was small and retrospective in nature, the Korean researchers suggested that further studies be conducted to confirm their findings.

The standard treatment for myeloma patients under the age of 65 years currently consists of high-dose chemotherapy, followed by autologous stem cell transplantation. In this type of transplantation, physicians collect a patient’s stem …

Results from a recent clinical study suggest that a new type of response, called an immunophenotypic response, strongly predicts disease progression in elderly multiple myeloma patients. Patients who achieved an immunophenotypic response had superior progression-free survival than patients who achieved a complete response or stringent complete response.

The authors suggested that testing for these three types of responses provides complementary information and that effort should be made to refine response criteria for multiple myeloma.

A number of previous studies have shown that achieving a complete response, which is defined by no detectable …

Results of a recent German study show that the chromosomal abnormalities del(17p13) and +1q21 may reduce overall survival in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma patients receiving Revlimid-dexamethasone compared to patients without these abnormalities.

The results also indicate that patients with t(14;16) receiving Revlimid-dexamethasone have a shorter time to disease progression than patients without this abnormality. In addition, patients with del(13q14) in combination with certain other chromosomal abnormalities may have decreased response rates and a shorter time to disease progression.

The study authors, however, recommended additional evaluation of these chromosomal abnormalities in larger patient populations, …

A diagnostic measure called plasma cell labeling index (PCLI) can help predict the likelihood that someone with smoldering multiple myeloma will eventually get multiple myeloma, wrote researchers in a letter to the editor published in this month’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings.

People with smoldering multiple myeloma have abnormal levels of certain cells and proteins in their blood, but don’t feel the symptoms of multiple myeloma. They are at risk for getting the cancer later.

The amount of plasma cells in a patient’s bone marrow and the amount of M protein in a patient’s …

A recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology determined that patients who achieved very good partial response (VGPR) or better after high-dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation experienced significantly longer event-free and overall survival.

“Very good partial response” is one of the terms defined by the International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG) to categorize how patients respond to treatment. According to IMWG criteria (see related Beacon news), patients reach very good partial response when the level of abnormal “M” proteins in their blood decreases by 90 percent.

Previous studies evaluating …