Dr. Jagannath on Cancer Proliferation in Multiple Myeloma

Sundar Jagannath, MD, director of the Multiple Myeloma program and professor of medicine at the Tisch Cancer Institute, Mount Sinai Health System, discusses cancer proliferation in multiple myeloma.

The development of any cancer results from a genetic change at the cellular level in which malignant cells reside among healthy cells. Investigators are working to understand how to leverage the surrounding cells to get rid of the cancer cells. Additional work is aiming to understand how to stimulate a patient’s immune cells to recognize the cancer cells and eliminate them.

Historically, physicians have only had access to chemotherapy to treat the disease. In recent years, immuno-oncology has come to play a big role in myeloma, says Jagannath. If a patient becomes resistant to chemotherapy, immunotherapy is one strategy that can be used to leverage a patient’s surrounding healthy immune cells and eradicate the myeloma.