Myeloma treatments require a heavy artillery of novel myeloma
drugs to reduce the number of cancer cells (ex: Revlimid,
Velcade, or Thalomid), followed by high-dose chemotherapy to
wipe out the cancer. Because the latter can completely wipe out
blood-forming stem cells (a side effect that can be life-
threatening to the patient), clinicians quickly learned to
collect patient stem cells right before high-dose chemotherapy,
and then transplanting them back into patients after treatment.
The feasibility of this approach depends on the effects of
myeloma drugs on patient stem cells. In contrast to the previous
report that Revlimid can negatively impact the success of
patient stem cell collection, a 10-year retrospective study at
the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center showed that the
negative impact of Revlimid can be corrected with stem cell
boosting treatments. In the paper published in January 2013
issue of Bone Marrow Transplantation, the researchers reported
that the Revlimid-based regimen had little impac