How Are Cytogenetics Used in Myeloma Care?
How Are Cytogenetics Used in Myeloma Care? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Myeloma expert, Dr. Nina Shah, explains cytogenetics and how results of these tests affect care and treatment for myeloma patients.
Dr. Nina Shah is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Fepartment of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and treats patients at the Hematology and Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinic at UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Shah, here.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
What is cytogenetics, and how is it used in myeloma patient care?
Dr. Shah:
We use the term cytogenetics and FISH sort of interchangeably, and really what it is, is the DNA characteristics of the bad plasma cells. So, the myeloma cells, and a lot of them may have changes in their DNA that are what we call clonal, meaning that they’re in a significant percentage of those cancer cells, or they might be non-clonal, which are less significant. But it’s the way the DNA is put together or maybe cut and pasted so that it changes the characteristics and maybe the aggressiveness of the disease.
Katherine Banwell:
What is the goal of this in-depth testing? Are there specific markers you’re looking for?
Dr. Shah:
When we look for things like cytogenetics and send FISH testing, we look to see if patients have changes that might make their disease may be more aggressive.
For example, it may cause their plasma cells, the myeloma cells, to grow faster or more aggressively. So, we look for changes that might, for example, have a deletion of a certain chain that puts the brakes on tumors, or it may have a translocation, which is when the chains sort of do-si-do together and that makes the cells grow faster.
