(by Nicola Simonetti) The epigones of this tremendous tumor of blood "rise up in disorder and without hope the valleys, which had descended with proud confidence".
Myeloma, an aggressive form of blood cancer, under the blows of the saber and foil of research, recedes, repeatedly "touched" by the progress of innovation, falls back dramatically and patients with myeloma live better and longer (survival average has gone from an average of 2 and a half years to over 10 years in good quality of life). The white weapon challenge launched by research and the clinic. The glove was entrusted to two witnesses (testimonials), the Olympic fencing gold medals, Elisa Di Francisca and Aldo Montano.
“Made an incredible increase in life and quality of life. The new drugs - says prof. Mario Boccadoro, director of hematology, university, Turin - prolong the time of remission and maintenance therapy allows patients to undergo a stem cell transplant to gain life time free from disease, stopping relapses ”.
Multiple Myeloma is a disease that is still little known, often diagnosed late because it can hide its troops advancing using silencers that do not create suspicion of an enemy or an enemy. The symptoms that the attacked patient warns are bone pain, anemia, asthenia to reach, gradually, exhaustion. Before connecting the symptoms-vague, random, attributable to a significant number of paraphysiological and pathological situations frank - the suspicion of disease, before including them in the system of differential diagnosis, we spend time.
Today we are able to give importance to these disorders, the enemy is discovered with increasing frequency and his advance is stopped by weapons, for him, deadly.
“It is important - says Sergio Amadori, president of AIL - to give patients a message of hope and to be at their side to encourage them to continue fighting without ever letting their guard down”.
Multiple Myeloma, the second most common blood cancer, mainly affects the elderly (average age 70 years) and is characterized by the uncontrolled multiplication of plasma cells, important components of the immune system, which replicate in an uncontrolled way and gather in the bone marrow.
The army of bad cells invades, attacks but makes a war alternating attack and waiting (almost like the first world war 1915-18). Periods of severity alternate with remissions and relapses. The effectiveness of current therapies has the ability to prolong the periods of respite and to stave off relapses that have a heavy impact on both the physical and psychological levels of the patient and his family.
The first truce is longer, less the successive ones. The current strategy is to prolong them a lot and remove the relapses.
"In Italy - says Boccadoro - about 7.000 diagnoses of new cases are recorded every year (in Europe, 39.000) and, today, up to 20.000 Italians live with cancer, above all thanks to new drugs that affect, in an extremely precise way, the diseased plasma cell and kill it without harming healthy, contiguous or distant cells in the body.
The current weapons against myeloma are: first of all the transplantation of autologous stem cells, a therapeutic method that cannot be implemented in all patients. There are those more debilitated or in very old age who could not bear a transplant. For the latter, weapons have been prepared that combine different drugs increasingly capable of attacking and even so intelligent as to target the malignant cell. A kind of kamikaze in the guise of a drug.
"The availability of numerous therapeutic options allows for getting better and deeper answers than survivals that increase the duration of remission periods".
“Not even patients undergoing transplantation are left to themselves. For them a maintenance therapy based on immunomodulating drugs that maintain the response obtained for a longer time realizing - says prof. Maria Teresa Petrucci, hematology, Umberto I polyclinic in Rome - a significant improvement. Abandoned the strategy of waiting of the past years, having no solutions to offer and knowing that a sword of Damocles hung over those patients and that it would be unleashed on them within a couple of years. Sick prisoners of the unhappy expectation of an upcoming relapse.
Today, after the transplant, armed waiting and "barrel" bullets.
Thanks to the results obtained in recent years, innovation in the research and treatment of Multiple Myeloma advances in great strides and the definitive lunge, the checkmate (cure) seems to be really close.
Celgene is also a company of modern research in myeloma. Merit honor.
"The story of Celgene is born with the research in Multiple Myeloma. In over 30 years - says Francesca Russo, medical director of Celgene Italy we have changed the paradigm of treatment of the disease thanks to the oral immunomodulators, which represent the pivot around which the therapeutic algorithm rotates for all phases of the disease. Recently we have written a new chapter for transplant patients, who previously had no other therapeutic options available, and our commitment to research continues unabatedly our closeness to patients is also concrete thanks to the support of valuable campaigns such as " Myeloma Ti Sfido "that increase awareness and knowledge, with positive effects for the whole system".
Associations of patients and volunteers in the field. "For patients with multiple myeloma - says Davide Petruzzelli president of" Aladino's Lamp "offers, through a multidisciplinary team work, a complete and individualized support. Our primary objective is the quality of life of the person in acute and post-acute phase of illness ".
The Myeloma Ti Sfido campaign has the patronage of GIMEMA - Italian Group of Adult Hematological Diseases, GITMO - Italian Group for Bone Marrow Transplantation, Stem Cells, Hemopoietic Cells and Cell Therapies, CONI - Italian National Olympic Committee, and FIS - Italian Federation Fencing.
The statements of the two testimonials:
Elisa Di Francisca: «The challenge to myeloma, with due proportions, can be compared to sporting challenges and fencing lends itself well to narrating the duel of patients with the disease. To the patients under treatment, who have to face the duel with the disease every day, I would like to say never to give up and never lose the strength of mind, courage and positivity that can lead them to overcome many challenges ».
Aldo Montano: "Life must always be lived positively with the support of the people who are next to you, who are fighting with you, and above all you must not get knocked down by difficulties. Even if life sometimes tries to knock you down, the goal is to fight until the end. Many times we manage to win ».