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Measuring My Myeloma With MRD Testing: What Is My Disease State?

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Minimal residual disease (MRD) testing is a big topic of interest for many myeloma patients and care partners. What exactly is the role of MRD testing in myeloma, and is it worthwhile?

Downloadable Guide

Watch as Cherie Rineker, a myeloma patient, Dr. Elisabet Manasanch, an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Tiffany Richards, an advanced practice nurse, discuss how myeloma is being measured to accurately define myeloma disease states.


Transcript:

Andrew Schorr:
Hello, and greetings from Southern California. I’m Andrew Schorr with Patient Power. Welcome to this Patient Empowerment network program. This should be very helpful over the next 90 minutes for all of you living with multiple myeloma. And some people, thank God, now have been living a long time. And we’re going to be discussing measuring my myeloma with MRD testing, what is my disease state. So, testing has come a long way, and we’re going to hear the latest.

Okay. Are you ready to go? All right. Now, let’s go to Houston, Texas. We have a lot of people to meet. And one of them is a physician who is a specialist in multiple myeloma. She is at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. And that’s Dr. Elisabet Manasanch. So, Dr. Manasanch, thank you so much for being with us. She’s going to pop herself on there. And thank you so much for being with us. And we’re going to learn a lot more about myeloma testing, as we go. Also, I want to have someone else join us from MD Anderson. She’s been on our programs before. She’s a nurse practitioner specializing in multiple myeloma. And that is Tiffany Richards. Tiffany, welcome to our program. Hi, Tiffany.

Tiffany Richards:
Hi.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. And then, of course, on every program, we always have a patient. And some of you in the myeloma community have been following Cherie Rineker from Houston, who has been living with myeloma since 2012. Not too long ago, nine months ago, had CAR T-cell therapy. But she’s been through so many treatments, and she’s in Houston as well. Cherie, welcome to our program. Cherie is going to pop herself—hi, Cherie, welcome back.

Cherie Rineker:
Hi, Andrew. It’s great being with you again.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So, let’s hear a little bit of Cherie’s story because, for any patient going through, you want to know how are you doing. And then, we’re going to learn from the doctor and from Tiffany more about MRD testing or testing in general. And then, we’ll take your questions, of course. So, first, Cherie, to start with, you were diagnosed back in 2012. And I think you were traveling at the time, is that right?

Cherie Rineker:
No. I was actually going to school to become a natural esthetician before getting very sick.

Andrew Schorr:
In your professional background, I know you’ve been a triathlete. You’ve been a very active woman.

Cherie Rineker:
Yes.

Andrew Schorr:
And you’ve done a lot of different things. You’ve been a massage therapist but particularly active. So, it started with pain in your arm and your side, right?

Cherie Rineker:
Pain in my side, pain in my ribs and my sternum, in my back. I was a massage therapist, so I kept self-massaging myself
with tennis balls that I would lay on trying to find the right spot. And it just would go to different places. It would never ease up. It was just slowly getting worse and worse.

Andrew Schorr:
And this went on for like six months, you were going through all sorts of problems and fatigue.

Cherie Rineker:
Right, right. Yeah. Slowly, the fatigue was getting worse and worse, to the point that my daughter was 6, at the time, and I would still pick her up, and I couldn’t do that anymore. And I had a hard time climbing up the stairs to my apartment. I ended up having low grade fevers and a lung infection that just didn’t want to go away. And I was being tested for all kinds of things. Everything came up negative. This little word, cancer, started creeping in my mind. And that’s what it ended up being.

Andrew Schorr:
And you have lesions on your bones, right?

Cherie Rineker:
They were all over my rib cage, all over my spine and my scalp, on my pelvis, yes.

Andrew Schorr:
How old were you, at the time of diagnosis, Cherie?

Cherie Rineker:
I was 44 years old. But I really believe that I had some form of myeloma for years, because I remember at 40 feeling very fragile, in my bones. And I asked my gynecologist, if I could get a bone density test. And he asked me if I was still having regular periods. I said yes, and he said you’re fine, don’t worry about it. And I think that maybe they could have found something, at that time, already.

Andrew Schorr:
I have a question for Tiffany just while we’re talking about diagnosis. So, Tiffany, she was a pretty young woman. Often, we think of people older with myeloma. But really, there is an age range, isn’t there?

Tiffany Richards:
There is. Certainly, the median age is about 69 years of age. But we do see patients who are younger being diagnosed with myeloma.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So, Cherie, you had your diagnosis. It’s a shocker. So, since 2012, you’ve been through a whole range of treatments.

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah. They started out they were going to do surgery on my spine. I had plasmacytomas on T3 and T4, one at one end to the spinal canal, so they were worried I was going to be paralyzed. The surgery was too tricky, so they chose for radiation. And after that, I moved from Tempe, Arizona to Houston, Texas to be closer to MD Anderson and went through nine months of induction chemo, which we changed up I think three or four times. And the side effects got worse and worse. So, we went ahead with bone marrow stem cell, my first one, in August 2013, even though I still had 80 percent of my lung and my bone marrow. And four months later, I chose for a second stem cell transplant, which only brought my numbers down to 20 percent. And then, I’ve been on continuous chemo through December of 2017, when I told Dr. Lasky I am done with chemo. It was destroying my immune system. And I was just very sick. And that’s when I started searching for a CAR-T trial.

Andrew Schorr:
Oh, man. So, you’ve been through it. There are some people who have done pretty well with transplant. Some people even have had oral therapies or infused therapies. But for you, you kept running through them.

Cherie Rineker:
Yes. And I found out later I had translocation (11;14), which is not supposed to be very aggressive myeloma. But Dr. Lasky said mine was just very stubborn. And it just didn’t do good with medicine. I would have short responses, and then, I would relapse again. And that’s how I went through the 13 different regimens.

Andrew Schorr:
And so, you had testing many different times. But the news often came back not so good.

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah. Some months, it would go better than others. And I would have a graph, in my bathroom sink, just for positive affirmation. And seeing that go down to zero, my first one, I think based on that analogy, I was supposed to be in complete remission August of 2013, which, obviously, didn’t happen. And it was just so devastating every time to see the numbers go down for a bit and then, creep back up again. And going up, Dr. Lasky often said that sometimes happens. But after so many relapses, I knew, as soon as those numbers went in the wrong direction that meant I had become refractory, and I had relapsed.

Andrew Schorr:
All right. So, just for our audience, CAR T-cell therapy that some people have heard about for this blood related cancer and for some others now, too, remains experimental, in some areas. And some lymphoma is approved, but not yet in myeloma. But you entered a trial. And, so far, over nine months now, it’s worked out, right?

Cherie Rineker:
Yes. I got my CAR T-cells back on March 12. It’s my fourth birthday now, after my birth and two stem cell transplants. And I went through a serious cytokine release storm for about a week and then, came out and started feeling better than I had in years real quick. And about three weeks later, I had my first complete remission, negative, no Bence Jones in my urine, no kappa light chains, ratio good. And then, the first bone marrow biopsy showed complete negative. They couldn’t find any myeloma.

Andrew Schorr:
And you’re going to go back for another check up soon where we hope that that still goes that way. And I should just mention, some people have seen some things we’ve posted along the way, and Cherie has, too, where I was thrilled when Cherie sent me a picture. And having been really almost at death’s door, she was out gardening, right, Cherie?

Cherie Rineker:
Yes. I do everything now. I’m back to teaching yoga and meditation. I’m doing reflexology again. I’m going to the gym, for the last month, trying to get strength in my body and my bones and my muscles. I have weened myself off all opioids. So, my medicine cabinet that was just bursting at the seams before, now, just has three little things that Valtrex, we, I guess, have to be on indefinitely and a couple of other little things. But, yeah, I feel healthier than I did probably one or two years prior to my diagnosis. So, it’s really incredible.

Andrew Schorr:
This is maybe the new age of myeloma care, with a much broader range of treatments than we’ve ever had before. And for someone like Cherie where so many other treatments that have worked for some of you who are watching were not working for her. And Doctor, I’m sure, when you hear this story, that makes you feel great that medical science has advanced, in this way.

Dr. Manasanch:
Yes. It’s great that we can use our own cells to treat diseases, including cancer. I do think that, of course, these therapies are some of the major advances that we’ve had over the last five years. In fact, when the CAR-T cells were starting, I was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health. And the first patient that got one of those infusions was a patient with, actually, leukemia. And I was on-call that night, and I was called because the patient was getting a cytogram release, so I had to send this patient to the ICU. And the patient, subsequently, did all right, but this was many years before this was going to be done in myeloma.

And then, I remember very well, when I left NIH to come here, that was in 2014, one of the days I was leaving, I kind of ran into Dr. Korkendorfer who is really the person, the scientist, that has developed this in myeloma with targeting the BCMA antigen. So, he really should have a lot of credit for this. He’s the one that really started the identification of this target that now is used in many other therapies, as well in clinical trials, not just for CAR T-cells. And he kind of was waving to me and saying, “You know, I’m going to be starting this BCMA CAR T-cell study here. So, send me some patients.” So, this was back in 2014, of course. This therapy seemed to work very well. Unfortunately, most patients still do relapse from these therapies.

And so, this just means to us that we have to keep fighting to improve these therapies. So, these are still first generation of these therapies. I think that we can improve on them. And I think there’s a lot of research going on on that. Still there are some patients, like Cherie was saying, that are years out and doing well. So, I know that is not like this or everybody. But the hope is still there that we can improve on these therapies.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So, that brings us to testing. So, Tiffany, you’ve been working in myeloma for a number of years. You’ve done a lot of programs. The testing keeps getting better, right? But patients are saying to you, “How am I doing, how am I doing?” Like Cherie had the picture on the wall of the bathroom charting herself. Tell us about how testing is changing and this whole term of minimal residual disease. What does that mean?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah, it’s a good question. So, when I started working here at Anderson 14 years ago, the light chains had recently been introduced. And we were starting to incorporate them into our response assessments. But, predominantly, we were looking at SPEPs and UPEPs. But, certainly, the light chains would give us an early indicator, if a patient was starting to relapse.

And then, over time, the response criteria have improved to now that we have minimal residual disease. And how I explain it to patients, I’m sure you’ve seen the slide with the iceberg. And patients, I think, relate to that. And I explained it to them that we pushed the iceberg far down below the level of detection that, with the most testing that we have, we can’t detect the iceberg anymore.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. But that detection of cancer cells has become super sensitive now, right?

Tiffany Richards:
Yes.

Andrew Schorr:
So, okay, Dr. Manasanch, help us understand how are we assessing MRD? So, if you are working with a Pathology Department or whoever, what tests are they doing to determine whether a patient has been treated successfully, basically?

Dr. Manasanch:
So, we’re very fortunate here at MD Anderson because we have a fantastic flow cytometry lab. And so, we have minimal residual disease testing by flow cytometry. And that’s just sending aspirate of bone marrow, so just the blood and the aspirate, when you get a bone marrow biopsy done, and sending it for analysis through a special machine that really can look very carefully at the markers around the surface of the myeloma cells. And by looking at these markers, we can determine whether the plasma cells are normal or abnormal. And we can determine how many, in that specimen, are plasma cells and then, how many are normal and how many are not normal.

And so, if we do find any that are not normal, then, that’s what we call minimal residual disease in a patient that has been treated. So, if you have multiple myeloma, and you have been treated for multiple myeloma, it is very common to do not just the blood studies and the 24 hour urine but also to do a bone marrow biopsy. And when you do the bone marrow biopsy, usually, that’s when you take a sample for analysis. Now, that’s what we do here at MD Anderson. Basically, we can detect one cell in hundred thousand, which is the sensitivity people are always talking about 10 to minus 4, 10 to minus 5, 10 to minus 6. So, ours here, with our flow cytometry testing, is 10 to minus 5, which is quite good. And it’s probably almost the best that you can get with flow cytometry, in the bone marrow. And so, we get the result within a few days. And so, we’re very lucky with that.

Now, there is also another technique. There’s a company called Adaptive Biotechnologies. And they have a test that is FDA approved. It’s called clonoSEQ. And they have different versions. And the most recent one, actually, is quite potent. And they can detect cells one in a million. So, I’m not sure, Cherie, if I may ask you, in the test that you had done, did you have the clonoSEQ test done, with flow cytometry?

Cherie Rineker:
I just emailed my oncologist, the trial oncologist, about that. And he said that I was MRD negative, with the clonoSEQ
was 10 to the negative 6.

Andrew Schorr:
Yeah. Because it’s very difficult to get the 10 to minus 6. So, the level of sensitivity is, basically, how many cells can you detect, in a sample of millions of cells, how many can you detect that are abnormal with myeloma. And so, with flow cytometry, it’s very difficult to get to one in a million. So, that’s why I suspected that’s probably done with the clonoSEQ assay. So, that test, basically, is available. The doctor has to send a sample to that company, Adaptive. And then, what I’m not very clear on is how the billing is done. Now, for here at MD Anderson because we already have an assay that is set up, it really doesn’t cost extra to patients to do. We really do it through flow cytometry. And so, that’s really what we’re doing at MD Anderson right now is flow cytometry minimal residual disease. It works pretty well. We know, from many studies, that it is predictive of how long a remission will last, in most patients.

However, each patient is so different that this is something that, whether, in your particular case, you need minimal residual disease or not is something that really has to be addressed with every patient because every patient is a little bit different. And one of major limitations of minimal residual disease is that it comes from the bone marrow. And the bone marrow is a blind biopsy, right. And so, people can have other things in other places, and we don’t see them. Now, it seems that, for most patients, it still works pretty well. But if you have a collection of plasma cells somewhere else that is not in that specific location where we do the bone marrow, that’s not going to show up. And so, that’s one of the limitations of this. And what we try to do with that is you can combine some imaging with the bone marrow test. And that even has a better prediction probably. So, you can do like a whole body MRI or a whole body PET CT. And then, you can look to see are there any lesions, anything that we’re not looking at the bone marrow. But I’m definitely having minimal residual disease negative but one to one million, which is a very good sensitivity,
after CAR T-cell therapy is excellent. It’s fantastic.

Andrew Schorr:
Oh, good. So, you got a second opinion here, Cherie.

Cherie Rineker:
And I will say I had the PET scan done as well. So, my only concern is because I relapsed so many times and so fast, how durable is this one? Will this one pop back, too? So, there’s some fear attached still.

Dr. Manasanch:
But that’s so difficult to tell because every patient is so different. Every patient is so different. And this is where it’s very easy to take a study and say 50% of these patients did this, 50% did this. But when you have that patient in front of you, it’s so hard to predict the individual rates because you mentioned, for example, I your case, all you had was this translocation (11;14), which really doesn’t signal this that this is going to happen. But it happened. And so, it’s so hard, when patients say how long am I going to live. I don’t think that we can tell. We can say, based on average, for your case, maybe this is what could happen. But really, no one knows.

So, each case is very, very individual. It’s very different. You really have to look at all of the things carefully. So, it has to be very careful analysis of each case. And so, this is why we run into surprises. But, overall, it is true that, if you have—no matter what type of myeloma you have, if you have a complete remission with minimal residual disease negativity that seems to pretend a good prognosis, in terms of the time that you stay in remission. And so, that’s important. And that usually translates into people living longer, the more you stay in remission. That’s usually how it goes. But, again, that’s a generalization. And every patient is very different. So, it’s just hard to do case by case.

Andrew Schorr:
And I want to ask Tiffany, so, Tiffany, you have patients come to you for follow-up care. And tests have been ordered along the way. And you’re going over the results with them. So, if it were me, and I had this, in my condition, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, where Dr. Wierda was also there at MD Anderson said, “You know, you’re not MRD negative.” And I was kind of crestfallen. And I said, “What does that mean?” He said, “You’re going to need treatment again sometime,” kind of like what the doctor was just saying, “but we don’t know when.” And for me, it was many years, actually, for that particular condition. But tell us how you described that because I’m sure you’ve seen people disappointed or feeling pretty good. So, how do you manage that, with your patients, Tiffany?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah. I usually try to set expectations, right from the beginning, when a patient first comes in because all patients want to have a CR. And they all want to have the deepest remission possible. That being said, I tell them upfront that the majority of patients may not get there. But that I have patients who have never achieved a complete remission. And they’re living 20 years later. So, I always tell patients that, at the end of the day, we have statistics. And we use those to formulate our treatment plans. But they’re their own unique case. And, if you don’t get to that MRDnegative status that it’s not the end of the world, that it doesn’t mean that all hope is lost and that this is the worst thing on earth. So, I try to set that expectation right from the beginning, so that, if they don’t get it, they’re somewhat prepared for that, and that they don’t leave feeling super, super disappointed.

Andrew Schorr:
I want to remind our audience, if you have a question, and some people, certainly, have sent them in, just send it in to
myeloma@patientpower.info. Now, Doctor, let me ask you this. So, here’s the thing. You’ve got all of these variables. So, it sounds like the testing is one indication. But what are the other things you’re looking at? It seems almost like a constellation for you, as a practitioner, to know how is somebody doing. Or even, if you’ve had a certain treatment, how is that treatment going. So, tell us what else you look at. So, the MRD testing to the 10 to the whatever, 5 or 6, as you can, what else? How do you assess how somebody is doing?

Dr. Manasanch:
Well, so, the first things that we do is we have what we call our myeloma labs. And the myeloma labs include something called electrophoresis. That’s a test that looks at each patient’s individual paraproteins. Those are the proteins that the myeloma makes. So, most myelomas, about 80 percent to 85 percent make what we call—they make an immunoglobulin. And those immunoglobulins, they actually have two parts. They have a heavy chain and a light chain.

That’s how immunoglobulins are structured. And those immunoglobulins usually fight infections. But the immunoglobulin that the myeloma cells make does not fight any infection. In fact, I’m just going to go in there and say that we have some exciting research here where we’re going to be looking at whether these paraproteins target in myeloma. So, we don’t know what they target. In a healthy patient, an immunoglobulin is supposed to target an infection or something that is foreign to us. And, usually, it’s viruses, bacteria, and so on.

But in myeloma patients, we don’t know. And we’re trying to look into that to see what is going to happen with the etiology of myeloma. Now, that’s what we look at in the blood, so those immunoglobins, those paraproteins. About 10% or 15 percent of patients, they don’t have the heavy chain. So, they have only one part or two parts of the structure of immunoglobulin. Instead of having the heavy chain and the light chain, in the immunoglobulin, they just have the light chain.

So, when I say this, it may sound a little complicated, but it’s really very easy. Most myeloma patients, they have an immunoglobulin G. So, we look to see how much of the immunoglobulin G is in the blood. Some patients will have immunoglobulin A, some will have immunoglobulin M. Maybe one percent of patients will have immunoglobulin E or an immunoglobulin D as in David. Those are very rare, but we see them. So, that’s usually most patients, myeloma express some of those. So, that’s a nice way you can correlate how much tumor you have, how much myeloma you have, by how much of this protein is in the blood.

Usually, most of the time, you can correlate that pretty well. So, the higher the level is in the bone marrow, the higher it is also in the blood. And so, usually, with a simple blood test, you can already know a lot about the patient’s myeloma, if the levels are very high or not. So, the first thing we look at, again, is this electrophoresis.

And that tells us how much of those immunoglobulin are in the blood. And then, we have, also, the light chains, which are kappa and lambda. So, we look at those. Those are the second part of the immunoglobulin. And, again, about 15 percent of the patients, they don’t have the heavy chain. They don’t have the immunoglobulin G or D or M. They just have the light chain, kappa or lambda. So, patients that have the whole protein, the whole paraprotein, the whole immunoglobulin, both the heavy part and the light chain part, we look at that through electrophoresis. And that’s very useful. And that’s how we determine the response.

So, you have the patient that has an immunoglobulin G kappa myeloma, that’s what the myeloma is making. And they start with a number of four. So, even if that number goes from 4 to 2, that’s a partial response. If it goes from 2 to 0.4, that’s a very good partial response.

And if it goes to 0 that could be a complete remission. So, really, most of what you need to measure like partial response, very good partial response, is really just the paraprotein. If you have a light chain myeloma, then, you have to look at the light chains in the blood. So, you don’t look so much at this paraprotein and the electrophoresis, but you look at the light chains. So, basically, you need, for someone who has the regular myeloma like most people have that has both heavy and light chain, you just look at the electrophoresis. And that can tell you a lot already. And that’s just one test.

Then, if you want to know about complete remission, once you reach that zero, then, you have to look at something called immunofixation that tells you the type of paraprotein. You have to look at the light chains. Also, you have to look at the variations in the light chains in the blood. And you have to look also at the urine. So, usually, that’s what we do with each patient.

So, there’s a lot of tests involved in this. So, the urine, the best test to measure the urine, in myeloma, is still a 24-hour urine that measures how much of the Bence Jones protein, which is the myeloma protein in the urine, varies. And that can be done quite easily, although it’s a little bit cumbersome for patients. And you look at that. So, only once you reach your complete remission, once the numbers in the blood are negative, the numbers in the urine are negative, then, usually, that’s when we say, okay, we’re going to do a bone marrow biopsy.

And then, if the bone marrow biopsy is negative, the bone marrow is normal, then you can do your MRD testing, your minimal residual disease testing. And that’s how the levels of remission. However, it gets a little bit tricky because you can have a patient that has still some paraprotein in the blood. So, the blood markers are positive. The urine markers are positive. And then, you do your bone marrow, and you do your minimal residual disease testing, and that is still showing a little bit of the—sorry, that is, basically, negative.

So, you can have an MRD-negative test. And you can have patients having some paraprotein in their blood. Okay. The main explanation for this is because the paraproteins, the IgG kappa mainly, takes a very long time to disappear from the blood. So, you may actually be looking at the bone marrow, and you don’t see any myeloma in the bone marrow, and that’s actually a good thing. What it likely means, for most patients, is that, with time, what they’re seeing in the blood will go away. So, it does seem that the IgG kappa tends to linger in the blood.

So, if you have patients here that have IgG kappa, and they have a minimal residual disease testing in the bone marrow, and that is not normal, and they still have a little bit of their IgG kappa in the blood, then, it is likely that this will actually go away with time.

Whereas, if the MRD testing is positive, it is a little bit more difficult. So, it can give you chances. But, basically, there are a lot of tests that we use.

Andrew Schorr:
Wow. So, I want to say, first of all, thank you for that because ladies and gentlemen watching are living with myeloma. Now, you hear how complicated this is to really understand, maybe not for Dr. Manasanch, but for some, particularly community oncologists around the country, around the world, to really help you get a clear picture of what’s going on with you. And this whole thing about lingering of some of these paraproteins where you’ve had an MRD negative test, I’d say, oh, I have an MRD-negative test. And then, if this other one came up, I’d say, oh, my God, could you explain the linger. And it’s maybe not such a big deal, right?

Dr. Manasanch:
It doesn’t have to be a big deal. And, usually, it still is a good thing, if you have still a little bit of protein in the blood and they myeloma.

And then, the bone marrow is normal, and the flow MRD or the clonoSEQ is negative that usually, probably, means that it’s just taking you a little bit longer to clear that protein from the blood.

Andrew Schorr:
Wow. So, Tiffany, the doctor rattled off a whole bunch of testing and light chain, heavy, light. If somebody is diagnosed with myeloma, and I’m sure this—Cherie, you’ve sort of gone to school learning this, over the years, but it is overwhelming to try to understand this. Obviously, you have to have a healthcare team you trust. How do you help people through this? Because they want to know how am I doing.

Tiffany Richards:
Right. That’s a good question. I think you’re looking at your patient in front of you. So, you’re going to tell them what they need to know, what our goal for them is. So, if they don’t have light chain—if they have a regular myeloma, you’re going to talk about their M protein and what we want to see their M protein go to.

And so, you’re not having to like go through everything all at the same time. Usually, the physician I work with will explain the iceberg discussion to the patient, at their initial visit. But, obviously, there’s a lot of information that’s given to patients, at that point in time. And so, you’re really just trying to take it—I try and take one step at a time, with patients because I find that they get very overwhelmed with information overload. And so, trying to break down that information, I think, is useful for patients, rather than giving it to them all at one time and just reiterating to them, at each visit.

Andrew Schorr:
Good, thanks. So, Dr. Manasanch, what do you tell patients? So, again, you’ve said, well, we’re going to do this test, or we’re looking at these proteins or light chains. How do you help people work with you to have confidence that maybe things are working?

Dr. Manasanch:
Well, I know it seems complicated, but it’s really very easy. The way we have our results, at MD Anderson, is it comes through the paper sheet that has all of the results there very clearly. And you can really point out, okay, this is your result. This is the number. This is your starting point. So, I just say this is your starting point. This is your number. Now, we want this number to go to normal. For the M protein or paraprotein, the normal number is 0. So, we would like the number to go to 0. That’s what we would like. Now, not everybody goes there. What does it mean? Well, for some patients, even if they don’t get there, it doesn’t matter.

They still do really well. For some patients, they don’t. Do I know, when I look at the patient? I cannot know. So, then, I don’t think that it’s very important because I pay a lot of attention to the things that I know that will impact.

So, whereas it is true that, for most patients, it is better for these M protein or these paraprotein to go to 0, there are some patients, as Tiffany said, that it never goes to 0, and they’re still doing great. And they don’t need anymore treatment. Some of them, they have the same number, zero point something, for years without treatment. So, it’s very difficult to say. So, I think it’s very important. The way I explain it is that we want this number to go to 0 if possible. If it doesn’t go to 0, then, we’ll talk about what to do, at that time, and whether we need to do something for your case or not because everybody is different.

And the people that have light chain disease, which is measured through the light chain test, then, I just go and say, okay, this is the light chain. This is what you have. We want this number to go to normal. Normal is around 10 to 20, something like that. We want this number, which is the ratio, to go to around 1, 1, 2, 3, something like that. And that’s our goal. That’s what we’re going to try to accomplish.

And then, when this number—I don’t go and explain all of this and MRD in the first visit because it’s too much. It’s just a lot. And patients with myeloma, they become your friends because the come to see you really every month. You see them all of the time. So, you have so many opportunities to talk about those things in follow ups that I just say the goal is to get you better, get those numbers reduced. And then, we’ll go and see from there. And then, in subsequent visits, then, we discuss, okay, well, guess what. This number is close to 0. Or we’ve done already a few months of treatment.

How about we do a bone marrow biopsy, and we look at minimal residual disease. And then, I discuss that. So, that’s usually how I do it. We break it down a little bit. And I don’t go into so much detail. But the patients always have all of their results. I usually give all of the results to my patients, so they can process them. They can look at them. They can become familiarized with them. I think it’s very important for patients to know what they’re looking at, what results they need to be aware of. And so, I certainly point to that probably at every single visit for every patient.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Cherie, what were some of the test results that you were following closely for you to feel how you were doing?

Cherie Rineker:
So, for me, I never had an M spike. And so, I guess that means I didn’t have the heavy light chain. Did I get that
correct?

Dr. Manasanch:
Yes, that is correct.

Cherie Rineker:
Okay. So, I never had an M spike. I believe my kappa light chain started out in the tens of thousands like 17,000, and my Bence Jones was around 8,000. And so, I was very afraid of chemo. I did my first month of lenalidomie (Revlimid), dexamethasone (Decadron) and bortezomib (Velcade). And my kappa light chain, actually, went up, after the first month. But we had a little accident at MD Anderson.

I had not put the lid good on the 24-hour urine. And my husband picked it up, and half of it ended up in his shoe, which got him very upset. But when we went to Dr. Lasky the next time, Dr. Lasky kind of gave me a high five on the Bence Jones. He said, “I don’t understand because your kappa light chain had jumped like 1,000.” He said, “But your Bence Jones went in half.” And I was very out of it. I was on a lot of medicine, at that time. And as an afterthought, I said, “Well, we did lose half the bottle of urine.” I told him the story. And I remember the look on his face went from, okay, this is a good thing to concern.

And looking back that little accident actually probably saved my life because being a holistic practitioner and being so afraid of chemo, probably had I known that both of the numbers had gone up, I probably would have said I’m not doing this anymore.

See, I’m right, and chemo is not good, and we’re going to stop it. So, the next month, the numbers slowly started coming down. They didn’t do a bone marrow biopsy for me. Well, they did one, and it was inconclusive. And then, they did another one, nine months later, before my stem cell transplant, which then showed 80 percent in the bone marrow. And I had asked Dr. Lasky what is a good way to go into the stem cell transplant. And he said, “We like patients to be between 0 and 5 percent.” So, needless to say, when I heard 80, I was pretty…

Andrew Schorr:
…you had quite a journey. So, we’re going to take some questions, in just a minute. Caroline has already sent one. Caroline, stand by and send them to myeloma@patientpower.info. So, Tiffany, some of the testing is to see what subtype of myeloma you have. Dr. Manasanch was talking about that.

Do you have this type of myeloma or that type of myeloma. So, some of the testing is related to that. So, is that sort of
step one is to see what’s your myeloma and how do we measure that? Is that where you sort of start?

Tiffany Richards:
Well, when you’re looking at an M protein, you do have to know what type of myeloma that they have. And a lot of patients, particularly patients who are active on blogs and support groups and stuff, always want to know what type of myeloma do I have. And so, the immunofixation will tell us what type of protein is being produced. So, whether it’s an IgA kappa or an IgG kappa, or in the case of a urine protein electrophoresis, it will tell us if it’s a kappa or a lambda. And then, we look at the M protein as well.

And I wouldn’t say there’s a Step 1 that we look at and then a step two because I think, when you’ve been doing this for so long, it’s more fluid than that. But that’s what patients want to know is what type of myeloma do I have.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. And then, just to be clear about the MRD testing, which becomes more and more sensitive, is that really kind of later in the process to do the MRD test? Where does it fit in?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah. So, usually, the MRD testing is not going to happen, until the patient is in a good remission. And so, generally, if the patient has achieved a complete remission, or if they have a small amount of residual protein, then, you may consider doing it. It really depends on the patient situation and where they are, in their journey.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. What about do it more than once? Do you get a remission, but then, later somebody comes out of remission? And later, would you do it again?

Tiffany Richards:
Generally, for a patient who is not on a clinical trial, at this point in time, we may recheck it. But for the physician I work with, we, generally, won’t recheck it because, at this point in time, it’s not like we would change—so, if a patient is on maintenance, lenalidomide, for example, and they achieved an MRD negative, and now, they’re MRD positive, but everything else is still looking okay, their numbers aren’t changing, we wouldn’t necessarily change treatment, at that point.

And so, it’s really going to be patient dependent. Sometimes, you’ll get them once a year, but, again, we don’t necessarily change treatment because a patient went from an MRD negative status to an MRD positive status.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Doctor, do you have a comment about that, about how often do do MRD or when?

Dr. Manasanch:
Right now, if you are on a clinical trial, the clinical trial, basically, tells you when you’re going to test for this. If you’re not on a clinical trial, I’ll tell you when I do it. And I think also, a lot of physicians do it at MD Anderson, which is usually before our stem cell collection.

So, newly diagnosed patients, they come in. Okay, yes, we confirm this is myeloma. This needs to be treated. They get treated. The response rate for the treatment of multiple myeloma right now, with the therapist that we use at MD Anderson, the response rate is 100 percent. So, basically, everyone, maybe 1 patient in 300 doesn’t respond. So, we can say response rate is 100 percent. So, all of them are going to respond or almost all of them. And then, we get ready. Most of the times, most patients actually, in our center, about 80% of newly diagnosed patients choose to do an upfront autologous stem cell transplant, which means that they need their cells collected.

And they proceed to get high-dose melphalan (Alkeran), which is the medication that is given with that transplant process. And so, we check the bone marrow to make sure that, actually, we’re not going to pick up a lot of bad cells with the stem cells.

We check the bone marrow because we also want to have a good response, whatever response you have, usually, before a transplant. The marrow transplant outcome, again, for most patients, but generalizations do not apply so well to individual patients and their cases. So, every patient is different. But, usually, we check the bone marrow biopsy, before we do the stem cell collection. And then, the bone marrow biopsy, after treatment, usually includes a minimal residual disease testing. So, that’s definitely something that we kind of consent to do at MD Anderson.

After that, it really is physician dependent. And it’s also patient dependent. So, all of us have a patient who wants to have a bone marrow biopsy every year and have minimal residual disease testing and seeing is it coming out of remission or not. Right now, there is no evidence coming from a clinical trial that that’s going to add any benefits.

So, for example, doing a bone marrow biopsy once a year to see the minimal residual disease, whether it’s positive or negative. We don’t have information on that. However, from our experience, I believe that we will be doing this in the future. So, patients will get minimal residual disease testing in the future. And that will determine what we do with treatment. Why? What Tiffany said. First of all, it’s common sense. It’s a little bit of common sense. But all of the studies, all of the evidence that we start having from clinical trials will be showing is that the earlier you know and the earlier you do, the patient seems to have better outcomes.

And that translates to smoldering myeloma, hopefully. So, now, I keep hearing more and more stronger voices about
maybe treatment of that. So, that’s a big area also in myeloma. Why?

Because, as Tiffany said, they use the paraproteins, the electrophoresis, the M proteins. And then, they have the light chains. And the chains are a little bit more sensitive. So, then, now, we don’t wait. So, the patient has a paraprotein, an M protein, of 0.0, and then, we don’t wait for that paraprotein to be 1, if the light chains are high. If a patient has the light chains are going up, we treat the patient, if they’re consistently going up. We don’t want for the paraprotein to be a certain number. So, I feel like a minimal residual disease would be something similar.

I feel like patients who will have the minimal residual disease, if they’re minimal residual disease is negative, they will have the testing done. And if we see that that starts to change, maybe the frequency of the MRD is increase. So, now, instead of doing your minimal residual disease testing every year, now, because it turned from negative to positive, now, we’re going to check it again in three months.

And guess what, if, in three months, that’s also higher, then, maybe you change the treatment, or maybe you start treatment. Now, that’s in the future. That’s what we are hoping to achieve, with all of this. And I think that a lot has done in the last few years. I believe that the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, will actually approve minimal residual disease as an end point for clinical trials. So, basically, the response how drugs are going to get approved is not going to be just, if your remission is longer or if you live longer. But if you get drug A versus drug B, in a clinical trial, what is the percentage of patients that are minimal residual disease negative. This is going to happen. And so, right now, the use of MRD, I think, has either been limited to when we do our bone marrow biopsies in patients after treatment and the significance is prognostic. So, overall, for most patients, if you’re MRD negative, it’s better than if you’re MRD positive, again, for most patients. And that’s all that we can say right now, today, is prognosis. But in the very near future, I think that we will do things like changing treatment. Maybe we’ll do things like stopping treatment. I don’t know. But we have a lot of studies that are looking at this right now. And they will report, in the next few years. So, this is where all of this is going. And right now, MRD is limited, I think, it prognosis. If you want to know your prognosis. And then, if you’re MRD negative, and you have to have it tested every year, you can. There’s nothing against it. What do we do with the information, if it turns positive?
It’s a little bit ahead of the time where we have full answers. But it depends on the patient and the physician a lot.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. This was a very complete answer. So, questions are pouring in. So, we’re going to start getting a lot of questions. Just so I understand, so the MRD testing today is only from the bone marrow, or can it be done from the peripheral blood, too, doctor?

Dr. Manasanch:
That’s a great question. Right now, it’s only from the bone marrow.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. But that may change.

Dr. Manasanch:
That may change. We, actually, have a study here at MD Anderson that I hope is going to be starting by the end of the year, which is going to be looking at something called the single cell assay, looking at, basically, each myeloma cell in the blood and doing very complete analysis, anomic analysis, something called proteomic analysis, looking at how the different cells are a little bit different. I think that, in the future, we probably will be able to do a blood test. We are not close to it yet. So, I don’t think, as I tell you, MRD, FDA approval for regulatory trials, I think, it will be soon. MRD testing, for the treatment decisions, soon, sooner rather than later. Maybe a test in the blood, maybe not so soon. So, maybe a few years.

Andrew Schorr:
You need a crystal ball. Okay. So, Tiffany, I think we’ve been talking about when MRD testing is typically done or when could it be done. And then, so Matt says, “What about the cost?” So, how do you guide people. Where does the cost come in, Tiffany? What are the costs of MRD testing?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah. So, I know that Medicare will now pay for MRD testing, but that doesn’t necessarily…

Andrew Schorr:
…you said they will pay for it?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah, for the clonoSEQ, they will pay for MRD testing, Medicare will. Whether or not other insurers, I have not heard from any of our patients that they’ve had difficulty or that they’ve had denials or that they’ve had to pay out of pocket. So, I think, by and large, insurers are reimbursing.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Now, some of these questions, folks, I don’t have myeloma, so I’m not as well versed as some of you, but let’s do
this. Matthew asked, “If you have M protein 0.1 or 0.2, should you get MRD testing?” And otherwise, you have negative numbers. So, Doctor, he’s wondering, with a 0.1 or 0.2, the M protein, should he have MRD testing?

Dr. Manasanch:
It depends. So, a patient that has—so, just a generalization. A patient who has very little paraprotein in the blood, assuming this I like a regular myeloma, most of the myeloma types that have both the heavy and the light chain. And then, you have 0.1 and 0.2. So, the response for these type of patients is usually what we call a very good partial response. Why? Because most myeloma patients that have this type of myeloma, the M proteins or paraproteins, they’re in the range of 3 or 4 or 5 grams, when they start. So, by the time they reach 0.1 and 0.2, that’s already more than a 90 percent decrease. And that’s what we call a valuable partial response. So, if you have a patient—if you’re a patient, and you know that your response is a very good partial response, does it make sense to test for minimal residual disease for prognosis?

It makes sense, for what I mentioned. Actually, if we look at the patients who are in very good partial response, and we look at MRD positive or negative, the patients who are negative tend to do better, in terms of how long their remission will last. So, if you have—you are in very good partial remission, and you want to know if this test if the clonoSEQ or if the flow is going to find any myeloma cells or not, if it does not find any myeloma cells, if you do not have myeloma cells that the test can find, that’s usually better than if the test finds some for patients in very good partial response.

So, what happens is do you want to test for it in partial response. Well, let’s say it’s not 0.1 or 0.2, the protein is 1.5, it can still probably predict. But, at that range, most patients be positive. So, it really starts to make sense, when you have very little in the blood, very little protein in the blood, and a very good partial response or very good partial remission range or complete remission. That’s when you can actually discern. If you test diagnosis or if you test partial remission, most patients will be positive. So, you can test, but it’s going to tell you what you already know.

It’s positive. So, then, what’s the point. So, for this patient, if it is a very good partial response, if the response is a very good partial response, it makes sense to, basically, talk to your doctor and say, okay, is this something that we need to do or not. Because it’s only prognosis, it’s really just to know. It’s not going to—it’s probably not going to change.

Andrew Schorr:
I think Matthew wants to know, and I’d want to know, too, because you have those very low numbers. I think, to get our head on straight, wouldn’t you agree, Cherie, you want to know?

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah. Just for peace of mind.

Andrew Schorr:
All right. Let’s get to some more questions. So, Valerie wrote in. She said, “If I’m declared MRD negative, is there still a need to take maintenance therapy indefinitely?” So, Doctor, do you want to take that one?

Dr. Manasanch:
So, the first thing is that my first inclination to that answer is, right now, we’re November 19, 2018. So, as of November 19, 2018, today, yes, you have to continue, even if you are MRD negative because being MRD negative, all it means is that the test cannot find the cells. But we have a problem in myeloma. We have a big problem in myeloma. And in myeloma, we really cannot seem to cure it, for most patients. Which means we cannot get rid of it. It’s still there. So, our worry, when patients come out of therapy, especially if they’re doing well with their therapy, right, it doesn’t have a lot of side effects, and they want to come off of it just to come off of it or because you’re MRD negative, the problem is, okay, what’s going to happen.

So, I actually had plenty of patients to where complete remissions, MRD negative by our flow cytometry, and I’ve taken them off therapy because they’re older patients. And this is relapse because there’s really, it’s the discussion because they’re coming, and they’re not doing well.

They get admitted. They have infections. They are not doing well. So, then, okay, well, everything looks good. Let’s give a break. And the myeloma comes back. And then, you treat it again, and it goes into another remission. And then, it comes back again. So, being minimal residual disease negative, in relapsed myeloma, you still need to treat it.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. There’s an elephant in the room here, though. Cherie, so with this 10 to the 6, you’re negative. The most sensitive test available. You’ve had the leading edge of treatment, CAR T, and yet, you’re hearing the doctor say we don’t think we are able to cure myeloma and that it may come back. So, you’re hearing this. What are you thinking?

Cherie Rineker:
Well, I belong to a CAR T Facebook group. And, sadly, there are people who have relapsed. There are people that have passed since relapse. And I have pretty severe post-traumatic stress syndrome, from everything that I’ve gone through from the many relapses. And so, I’ve noticed the further out I get, the worse my anxiety is getting actually not being on any treatment. So, hearing this, again, I feel that, at this point, maybe I want to go on maintenance. But I think it would disqualify me for the trials. And I want to be part of helping the CAR T research. At the same time, I can’t fathom the thought of having to go through another relapse.

And for me, even though the numbers are really small in the end, the plasmacytoma 9 centimeter, which popped out of nowhere, within a month, the cancer was so aggressive. So, would you recommend, doctor, that I should pursue a maintenance regimen?

Andrew Schorr:
But you’re in the trial though to see how long it lasts though, too.

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah.

Andrew Schorr:
Well, I think I’m just going to comment on this. First of all, I think Andrew’s question, so this maintenance usually applies to newly diagnosed patients, right. But I made my case with relapse because what happens, newly diagnosed patients, usually, the therapists we have now are so good. Most of the patients do really well, right. I think that this is the main thing of the webinar is patients with myeloma do really well right now. I think this has to be that, most patients do, okay? Once the myeloma has come back, and it has come back a few times, it just takes less time to come back.

So, my experience with doing minimal residual disease testing has been that. You can have somebody who has relapsed myeloma who is MRD negative. That does not mean that they’re always going to stay like that. But that also doesn’t mean it has to com back. I’m just saying that it can be either way. But for maintenance like after transplant or maintenance after your initial treatment, when you’re doing just continuous therapy, probably the right thing to do is to continue, even if you’re negative, continue that therapy because we really don’t know.

We don’t have data. There are studies now where, if you are MRD negative, they stop the therapy. And if you’re positive, they continue. Right? And, in fact, you’re negative, some patients stop, some continue. So, basically, we’re going to see, in the next few years, if you can stop it, if you’re MRD negative, if you can stop the maintenance. But right now, there’s no evidence, specifically, for your case, after CAR T. There is no evidence, right now, that starting therapy will make it last longer. So, probably , you don’t have to do anything. But for the newly diagnosed patients who go on the maintenance, they’re negative. Basically, that’s not affecting how we treat. It’s just an information. It seems like that’s a very good prognostic factor. But whether we have to stop the maintenance, that’s up in the air. And for most patients, I would probably say don’t stop it. Continue it. until we have at least some studies saying that, okay, if you’re negative, you can safely stop it. That’s what I would do. I’m just going to play a little bit devil’s advocate.

Andrew Schorr:
I would just say that, for me, just listening, there’s an old phrase don’t mess with success. Right now, you’re living your life. You’re going to go from—when you’re in a trial, part of the thing with the trial is to understand how long can you have this. Here’s a question we got in from Darrell. And, doctor, I think you answered this, but I just want to make sure. So, he said he did have a very successful CAR T, and all markers of disease in the bone marrow were zero. PET scan analysis, no evidence of rival disease. But the M spike, after 90 days, has remained 0.1. Is it possible, and I think he said this, that the M protein just takes a little while?

Dr. Manasanch:
It’s possible. It’s possible that maybe there are some cells that are making that M protein somewhere. But, again, as
long as the cells don’t get worse, who cares? If you have an M protein of 0.1, and that’s not making you sick, and it’s
going to stay 0.1 for 10 years, that’s not going to kill you. An M protein of 0.1, that doesn’t get worse. So, the key here
is, if you stay there, that’s okay. The problem is, if it goes from 0.1 to 0.2 to 0.4 to 1.0, That’s when we get into trouble.
If, for some reason, there is the balance of your body or immune system is just letting some cells be there and make a
little bit of protein, and that’s it, that’s great.

That’s all you need, to not get into trouble, with the myeloma. So, that’s possible, of course. You can have everything negative and a little protein, and the light chain is a little bit high. That happens. But it could just be that it’s just lingering a little bit longer. It could be that there are some cells making it that are not doing much. It just has to be followed.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Just to be clear, Darrell asked a follow up question. After CAR T, then, why not start a maintenance treatment,
even if you’re MRD negative? So, is that what is the protocol for the CAR T? Or what are you doing at MD Anderson?

Dr. Manasanch:
Well, that’s a very good question. I think that’s probably like the next generation of studies, with CAR T. So, right now, when we design clinical trials, you have to, basically, make an end point, right? So, what’s your goal, when you do a study? What do you want to prove? What are you trying to say about this?

And they do studies with CAR-T cells really mostly have two end points. One is safety. So, make sure that you’re going to give the cells. People are not going to die from toxicity. They’re going to actually going to be able to go through with this. And then, the second one is how effective is this, so what are the responses? How long does it take after a response for the myeloma to come back? So, those are the main things. So, if you do a CAR T, and then, you put a therapy right after, it’s very difficult to isolate the effect of the cell therapy. So, you, ideally, want to do a study with cell therapy that is just a cell therapy.

Now, once we have established that this cell therapy is safe, and the CAR Ts are safe, and they are effective, then, the
next generation of studies is you can add things to it. Usually, we have to build on things. So, you have to have a basis.
So, right now, there are already studies looking at comparing CAR-T cell to standard therapy.

So, for like patients that are not just relapsed after 10 lines of therapy, patients that have relapsed a little bit sooner, maybe like second lines, first or second relapse. You can get CAR T, or you can get another therapy. And then, basically, this is something that has to be studied. There is no data, right now, that I’m aware to do any therapy after CAR T cell. So, that’s why people don’t do therapies because we have not gotten to it yet. So, that’s a good question. Somebody is probably doing a study right now doing therapy after CAR T cell. But I have not seen any results from any studies like that.

Andrew Schorr:
Tiffany, here’s a question that came in. This person, they’re anonymous, don’t know if it’s male or female. I’m 55 years
old, and I’m MRD negative after 1.5 cycles of treatment. My doctor wants to do stem cell collection but possibly not yet the transplant. Does MD Anderson ever skip the stem cell transplant and just freeze the cells, just wait?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah. Certainly, there are some patients that we do that that, if they are MRD negative that would be a possibility. But, again, I think that’s a discussion with your physician because there’s a lot of other factors that come into play, such as what are their chromosomes, are they high risk, standard risk, their level of presentation, what the PET looks like. And so, it’s really going to be patient dependent.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. doctor, here’s a question, and maybe you can decipher this for me because I’m not that familiar with it. Nicole writes in what is your experience with the presence of only oligoclonal bands? Can it ever be a band sign? I’m nine months out from stem cell transplant. And the M protein went from 0.06 to the bands in the last one.

Dr. Manasanch:
So, oligoclonal means that it’s normal. It’s like your normal immunoglobulin. So, that’s usually a good sign. It means usually the sign of deep remission. So, that’s a good thing. What that means is you probably have a deep remission, which is usually either very good partial remission or a complete remission. And what it means is that you’re normal, you’re actually starting to have normal plasma cells in your bone marrow that are actually making normal immunoglobulins. And so, the pathologist, when they look at your electrophoresis and your immunofixation, they’re seeing that there are normal immunoglobulins. And they just say, okay, we see some bands in this test. And these are probably just normal bands. So, that’s a good thing to have.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Tiffany, so, we’ve been talking a lot about CAR T. And I just want to help everybody understand what it is because it’s been very much in the discussion of myeloma for people like Cherie who needed lots of treatment. How do you explain CAR T to people?

Tiffany Richards:
It’s a good question. What I explain to them is that because a lot of patients have already had stem cells, so they’re familiar with having their stem cells collected. So, I tell them it’s similar to that, but we’re going to collect your T cells. And T cells are a type of white blood cells. And those cells will then be collected and sent to the company where they will manipulate the T cells to go after the myeloma cells. And that they will get chemotherapy prior to having their stem cells reinfused. And then, their stem cells will be reinfused. So, a lot of patients, they’re pretty familiar with it because they’ve all had stem cells.
So, they get chemo. And then, I’m going to get the stem cells. And so, that’s usually how I explained it. I try to keep it pretty simple, for them, because it’s quite a complicated process.

Andrew Schorr:
Right, okay. And so, where are we now, Cherie? You went through it. And so, for you, it was kind of the leading edge because you, I don’t want to say you failed the treatments, the treatments had failed you. And so, this was really your last hope, right?

Cherie Rineker:
Yes, it was. The last time I remember going to MD Anderson and talking to my oncologist, and he said, “Well, we can now go to four different medicines, instead of the usual three.” And he’d had a couple of patients, and it seemed successful. And I just knew my trend. And, at that point, I needed monthly platelet infusions and filgrastim (Neupogen) shots constantly. So, it was both the chemo and the cancer were destroying my body. And I had heard about CAR T. And I said I’m done with chemo. I want to really pursue the CAR T, which, sadly, at MD Anderson, they started it I think a week after I had my cells returned to me. So, it’s been a 14 -our flight or $500.00 ticket to…

Andrew Schorr:
…there’s an element, as these trials open up. So, I just want to go—first of all, we do have time for a few more questions. So, send them to myeloma@patientpower.info. And I mentioned Caroline a long time ago. Caroline, I didn’t want you to feel lost. So, let me see if I understand. She says, “How will knowing disease state or using MRD measurement technology change treatment plans?” So, Doctor, I just want to understand. So, what do you do with the information? So, somebody says what’s the prognosis, is it changing what treatment you use or when, based on the MRD results?

Dr. Manasanch:
We don’t have any evidence to change treatments. So, these are all questions that need to be answered, in the next few years. So, the question of, if you are in complete remission, MRD negative, and then, you get another test done, and you go from negative to positive, do we start treatment, if you are not on treatment? If you were on treatment, do we switch it? All of those things, and how often do we test for it. We don’t have an answer for those questions. We really don’t have a guidance for that. So, it’s really just, when we test for it here, it’s just so because the technology is available.

And we know that it’s prognostic. So, we know that patients that are negative, they seem to do better. So, it’s nice to have the information, but there’s not much that we can do with it, right now, except just make someone happy telling them this is already negative. But there’s not much that you can do with information. And that’s why Tiffany was saying, Dr. Weber, ewe don’t do it, unless—we test after treatment.

And every time after treatment, we test for it. And if it’s negative, okay, we know that’s the best level of remission that we have. But what does it mean, in terms of treatment? We don’t know that. So, a lot of centers don’t even do MRD.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Yeah. So, that’s my next question. So, we have people all over the world watching. So, Cherie has been a patient of MD Anderson. She also went over to Nashville. They have a big center there. These are major centers. But a lot of people are treated at not such a good place or maybe not even with a hematologist/oncologist who has a big myeloma practice. And we’re talking about very sophisticated testing. We’re talking about 10 to the 5, 10 to the 6, super sensitive testing. And you’re saying well, what would we do differently?

So, should people watching, Tiffany? If somebody said to you, I live somewhere else in Texas, but I come to MD Anderson—but should the local level, in Lubbock or someplace, should I be lobbying for MRD testing? Tiffany, what do you say? I want to get the doctor’s response, too.

Tiffany Richards:
That’s a good question. It’s also a hard question because, for me, I always go back to, if you have a test, is it going to change what you’re doing? And while MRD status is good to know, I always also go to the flipside. If a patient is told they’re MRD positive, how are they going to feel, after that result. And then, if they’re in a community practice where they’re seeing an oncologist who maybe doesn’t see a lot of myeloma, and now, you have this patient who feels totally deflated because they’re MRD positive.

They go and they look on the internet. And they see, oh, my gosh, my prognosis is worse. And so, what happens, in that scenario? And so, I feel like we shouldn’t leave patients out there who are going to be feeling deflated, without being able to pick them back up and give them hope. And if they’re not in a place where that can occur, then, maybe it’s better not to do the testing. But, again, I think the patient’s situation and having the patient have that discussion with the oncologist is important. But I certain feel like a patient should be able to also have hope, if they do come back MRD positive.

Andrew Schorr:
Doctor, what do you say? Again, you do MRD testing, at certain points, because—and you’re also doing research with your colleagues around the world trying to figure out where does it fit in, and what do you do about it. But that’s not always happening, at the community centers. And they’re not doing that research. So, just for our worldwide audience now, what do you want to say about MRD testing? And I’ll just say for me, and I think, Cherie, you agreed, I want to know, personally.

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah.

Dr. Manasanch:
Most patients, when given the option, they prefer to know. I think, for patients though, one thing that we try to have a community of oncologists and practices. And our own techs actually send their samples here, so we test them here. And it just turned out to be something that was logistically not feasible to do. So, we’ve tried to do this, so that people that cannot come here, their oncologist can send the samples. And the physicians will be happy to do it. But, in terms of our lab, the volume and all of this, it’s just not practical.

So, this is not something that we could achieve. Now, for the community oncologists, community oncologists, usually, they don’t test. They don’t do advanced flow cytometry. So, minimal residual disease testing requires advanced flow cytometry, which is like a new generation where you have some machines that can test many cells, at the same time. You need to have some software that can do that. You need to have someone who is very experienced. If you don’t have a very experienced pathologist reading this test, they’re going to result in tests that are not correct. And that could be an issue.

And so, I think that, if you don’t have the technology to do it, it’s better just not to do it. I think that, when we start changing treatment with this, I think that everyone will open up to it more. I think that it’s very good that the FDA has approved the clonoSEQ test to test for minimal residual disease because I think that’s easy, so the community oncologists can send the samples to Adaptive Biotechnologies.

And they can test us and give our result back. And now, the advantage of—so, that’s, basically, what I would say to these patients. But let me just add something to that. So, basically, if you don’t have it, don’t worry about it. If you really want to have it, and your place doesn’t offer it, you have to go somewhere else because, if where you are, they don’t have it, it’s better that they don’t do it because it’s complicated to get set up. It’s not easy. But now, if you compare flow cytometry to sequencing, so that’s DNA sequencing, DNA sequencing seems to be better.

And so, this clonoSEQ test, the advantage of this test compared to flow cytometry is that, with this test, you can look at different populations of myeloma, within the same patient. So, if you send these tests on diagnosis, they’re going to tell you, okay, 80% of the myeloma has this. And then, the rest, 15 percent, looks like this, and 5 percent looks like this.

And it’s going to tell you that. Whereas the flow cytometry doesn’t tell you that. Now, this test can be done, the sequencing, can be done on almost any patient. Flow cytometry can be done in every patient. So, some patients may not be able to do the sequencing, with the new generation of the sequencing test, the clonoSEQ. Every time, they can read more and more patients. But those are the main limitations. The main limitations of flow cytometry is it cannot inform you on the biology of the myeloma, in terms of how many different myelomas are there, sub myelomas are there in the myeloma.

So, that test cannot inform you of that. But some patients may not be able to do it. Whereas the flow, you can do it in everybody, but it’s not going to tell you about the subpopulations of myeloma. So, those are two tests that are, basically, used for right now.

Andrew Schorr:
I take away as sort of the common man here a couple of things. One is, and we’ve said this on so many of our programs. Cherie, I’m sure you agree. First of all, if you’re living with myeloma, I, personally, think you may want to check in or get a second opinion at a major center, whether it’s MD Anderson or one of the others. And I like the full work up. The other thing that’s going on is the testing continues to advance. So, if I got you right, you’re talking about one person having almost little subsets of myeloma with their own blood, right? Not just one myeloma, but different types. So, it would be super sensitive. Then, the question is what does it all mean differently now that you know. This is like crazy-making. So, it’s kind of like, first of all, have a team that you trust. And recognize, thank God, wouldn’t you say, Cherie, that myeloma patients, in your wonderful example, are on a much longer journey now than ever before You’re such an example of that. And so, this discussion, you’re kind of flowing with your myeloma. Hopefully, it doesn’t come back, but if it does, the testing is going to be more sophisticated. The treatments are going to be more tailored.

Cherie Rineker:
Yes. If I may say, too, when I was first diagnosed, I found out I had multiple myeloma, which I was told was a tradable yet incurable disease, at 44, that’s pretty devastating news. I thought, if I get cancer, you’re going to treat it aggressively. I’m going to go bald for six months or a year, and then, my life goes on. That’s what I thought about cancer. So, to have something that continues on and on is pretty tough to live with. Hopefully, getting to an older age.

And for me, the journey has been both physical healing and emotional healing. And physically, I’ve gotten better and better through the years, now, thankfully, after CAR T especially. But, emotionally, too, that is a lifelong commitment and exercise of trying to stay in the now, trying to stay positive, trying not to have multiple myeloma at the forefront of my thoughts, in everything that I do. And I think MRD negative has played a huge role for me because it has given me some piece of mind that, even if I’m going to relapse, maybe it will be longer. And, hopefully, I’ll stay in remission long enough for another trial to come along for me.

Andrew Schorr:
Yeah. Well, we’ll pray for you exactly that. And I hope so. And I know many of the people watching, and I’ve met a lot of myeloma patients over the years, I’ve been doing these programs since the mid ‘90s.

And, certainly, we’ve lost some people. But so many people are doing better. And there was another treatment waiting for them. And there are others waiting for approval now or close to approval, as we head towards 2019. So, I think learning what’s the right testing, what does it mean, what treatments line up with that, when CAR T, understanding the longevity of that, or who does it work for. And I will just put in a plug for a big meeting coming up. The American Society of Hematology meeting is here in my home county, San Diego. You’ll probably go, Doctor, Tiffany, I’m not sure are you going this year. It would be great to see you.

And so, these studies we’re talking about, trying to answer these questions, it comes out at meetings like that. And there will be a lot of discussion. Who is CAR T right for? What more do we know about MRD testing? When do we do it? What do we do differently because of it? Doctor, did I get it right?

Dr. Manasanch:
Yes, yes, great.

Andrew Schorr:
So, we will be reporting, and my wife Ester and I will be doing some daily wrap ups on the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday of ASH. So, if there’s news about that, we’ll be talking about it. But I think here, we’ve given you a good baseline of where understanding is. So, as we get close to the end here, Tiffany, so people have been listening for 90 minutes. We have a couple of hundred people who have been listening and more. How do people get their head on straight on where this testing and the range of treatment fits better for them? Tiffany, so just help us. Like Cherie was saying, it’s the emotional part of it, with this moving target of myeloma.

Tiffany Richards:
I think I would just tell patients have a discussion with your team about if it’s appropriate for you, at this moment, or if it would be appropriate, in the future. And I think that all of the different response criteria in MRD, I think it’s one of those things that it’s not just going to—they’re not going to be able to really understand it, after just one discussion. I think it’s a continual discussion. And so, I would first say let’s just take it one step at a time. Are you in a very good partial remission? If you are, then, it would be a time to have that conversation about MRD testing or not. If you haven’t gotten to a very good partial remission, let’s just focus on getting you there, rather than looking at the whole entire process, all at the same time.

Andrew Schorr:
Yeah. It’s a lot. And I think, for the family members, often, not Cherie, and not when I was diagnosed with leukemia at 45, that for somebody where, if you’re in your 70s or maybe 80s, and you’re dealing with myeloma, you may have an adult child or a friend helping you make these decisions.

And you feel like you’re kind of drinking from the fire hose, as the treatments have become three, four treatments together, or CAR T, or tandem transplants, or all of these kinds of things, and then, all of the different tests. And the kappa, lambda, and M spike and bands and MRD, it’s a lot to drink in. And you don’t have to feel overwhelmed. How have you—Cherie, would you say knowledge is power? Or having the right healthcare team is part of it? How do you cope when, thank God, there’s more going on in myeloma than ever before?

Cherie Rineker:
Yeah. Knowledge is power, absolutely, a good team that I have at MD Anderson that has been phenomenal, friends’ support.

And knowledge can be a double-edged sword, too. When my last test results came in from MD Anderson, actually, last month, I was so scared to open it because having achieved MRD negativity now, I’m so afraid that the next test is going to show I don’t and that I’ll fall back in that whole thing again. So, like I said, the mental staying mindful and staying positive and just believing in your doctors and your team and knowing that there will be something else on the horizon that can prolong our lives.

Andrew Schorr:
Yeah. And I will tell you, there is a lot going on. But what you know now is you’ve got the little dog that wants your attention. And you’ve got your kids that want your attention. And you’re feeling good today, right?

Cherie Rineker:
Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I’m beyond grateful. I truly believe that, for me, it was a miracle. I was in a wheelchair last year, and now, I’m out teaching yoga again, incredible.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. I want to mention that, if you go on the Patient Power site but also on some of you on Facebook groups or whatever, Cherie has written a lot about it. Cherie, what’s the name of your book?

Cherie Rineker:
I have a book, “A Pilgrimage Without End, How Cancer Healed My Broken Heart.” And that kind of ends at when I, in 2016, when I started daratumumab (Darzalex). And I thought that was going to be the end, and I was going to be on that indefinitely. Since, a lot has happened, obviously. So, I’m working on another book now, “Pilgrimage Towards Health, Keeping Hope Alive.” So, I hope sometime in 2019 that will come out. And yeah, now, I’m just advocate and activist and take a lot of questions. Never the doctor questions but more the emotional support that I love to give.

Andrew Schorr:
And raising money for research.

Cherie Rineker:
Yes, I did, for MD Anderson last year, for my 50th birthday, yeah.

Andrew Schorr:
Thank you. Well, we’re so glad that things have worked out. So, doctor, just to wrap up then, this MRD testing that we’ve talked about a lot, along with the other test, is sort of a moving target, right? As is myeloma treatment algorithms, right?

Dr. Manasanch:
Moving target, yes.

Andrew Schorr:
Yes. So, the idea is that patients have the right team. And like you say, you see some patients every month. And it’s an active discussion, right? It’s an iterative discussion.

Dr. Manasanch:
Right.

Andrew Schorr:
So, put it all together though, Doctor. I always like to end this way. Are you hopeful? Because, in the end, what we want to take away as viewers is you’re our barometers. You and Tiffany are our barometers. Knowing what you know, and Tiffany, you said you’ve been doing it 14 years now, right?

Tiffany Richards:
Yeah, 14.

Andrew Schorr:
So, doctor, are you hopeful for those of us who are living with myeloma?

Dr. Manasanch:
Yes, of course. I think that—when I started doing multiple myeloma, all of my patients were doing great. So, this was like 2010, 2011. And it was on clinical trials at NAH with therapy that, at the time, was only given on clinical trials, from the therapy. Everyone was doing great. And I was thinking what is the big deal. Everyone is doing so great. How is this even possible? Like people didn’t used to do well. I think that people have to remember, studies coming out at 2003, the rates of very good partial response and complete remission with therapies, as of 2003, which is 15 years ago, was 10 percent.

And our rate of very good partial response and complete remission right now is, of course, if you do continuous therapy for a year, and most people are in very good partial response or complete remission. So, you went from 10 percent to most patients having it, so now, we’re doing great. I think that we need to figure out why, once we treat it, why it keeps coming back. And I think that’s something that we have not yet figured out yet. And there’s a lot of research trying to find out why. I think that patients will continue to do very well, definitely.

There’s a lot of hope, yeah, definitely. There are so many things that have been going on. There are so many new therapies that are working well. And, again, the self-therapies or the CAR, they’re just the first generation. There are people who are improving on them.

They’re adding things to it. And also, what happens if you give it to someone who has had 10 lines of therapy, but if you give it to someone without a diagnosis? What’s going to happen? We don’t know those things. What if you give it in patients before they develop myeloma? What’s going to happen then? Are you curing them? So, yeah, there are so many things that we can do, right? We don’t have enough—we need more manpower to do all of it. It’s a lot of work. We have a lot of work here, in our department. We have so many things that we want to do. And I think that it’s like the manpower because there’s so much to do.

Andrew Schorr:
Or woman power, there you go.

Dr. Manasanch:
Or women power, but there is so much to do.

Andrew Schorr:
Tiffany, I’m going to let you make the final comment. And that is 14 years there at MD Anderson, right?

Tiffany Richards:
Yep.

Andrew Schorr:
Working in myeloma.

Tiffany Richards:
Yep.

Andrew Schorr:
You’ve seen thousands of patients.

Tiffany Richards:
Yes.

Andrew Schorr:
If somebody comes to you today, obviously, you’ve got to figure out what’s going on. But would you say we can end on a hopeful message?

Tiffany Richards:
Oh, I definitely. So, when I first started 14 years ago, the drugs that were approved that we used—the drugs we had available was bortezomib, thalidomide (Thalomid), transplant, Vad, and melphalan. And that was what we had available to us. And
if you just look at the number of drugs that are now FDA approved for the treatment of myeloma, it’s really remarkable how many options that we have. And every day in clinic, it’s funny because we see these patients every month. And they really do become like part of your family. And I look, and I’ll be like, oh, my gosh, you came right around the same time that I started.
And I’m like oh, my gosh, that was 14 years ago. Wow. And so, there are most definitely reasons to hopeful. And if the
next 14 years are like the last 14 years, then, patients will do really, really well.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Amen. All right. I want to thank everybody with us from Houston, Texas today. Cherie Rineker, thank you so much. And all the best to you. Tiffany Richards, thank you. Elisabet Manasanch, thank you so much for being with us. We really explained this in detail. Remember, there will be a replay. And there’s a survey usually we have afterwards. Stay tuned for what we have coming up from ASH. I want to thank the Patient Empowerment Network for pulling all of this together. And I want to thank our financial supporters, Sanofi, Celgene, and AbbVie for supporting the myeloma community. I have a cough I get from a leukemia treatment. In Carlsbad, California, I’m Andrew Schorr. Thank you for joining us. And remember, knowledge can be the best medicine of all.


Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Empowerment Netowrk (PEN) are not necessarily the views of our sponsors, contributors, partners or PEN. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.

Measuring My Myeloma With MRD Testing: What Is My Disease State?

Minimal residual disease (MRD) testing is a big topic of interest for many myeloma patients and care partners. What exactly is the role of MRD testing in myeloma, and is it worthwhile?  MRD testing refers to measuring the remaining amount of myeloma cells still in the patients system following therapy resulting in some actionable insights for your healthcare team.

Diagnosed with myeloma in 2012, Cherie Rineker, a young mother to a 13-year-old daughter, learned she was MRD negative two months following her CAR-T treatment. Having been near death, she describes hearing that she was MRD negative as a “miracle and dream come true”—she and her family were overjoyed.  It was in that moment, she felt she might have finally won a battle she has fought for so long. 

On Monday, November 19, 2018 @ 8:30 AM Pacific (10:30 AM Central, 11:30 AM Eastern), join Cherie, Dr. Elisabet Manasanch, an oncologist at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Tiffany Richards, an advanced practice nurse, for an in-depth conversation on how myeloma is being measured to accurately define myeloma disease states.

Join us to learn:

  • What are the advantages of MRD testing, and how is it done?
  • Is MRD testing here to stay?
  • What is MRD negativity vs. positivity?
  • Can MRD testing measure and define my type of myeloma?

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Exercise and Nutrition Before and After Myeloma Treatment: What You Should Know

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Living Well with Multiple Myeloma

Exercise and Nutrition Before and After Myeloma Treatment: What You Should Know from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Downloadable Program Guide

Exercise and nutrition are important components to long-term health for everyone. But as a myeloma patient, are there specific tips for exercising safely? Can incorporating simple lifestyle changes improve and maintain good bone health? This webinar, featuring physical therapist Melanie House and dietitian Alexa Welch, both from University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, will provide guidance for individuals looking to increase their overall health through diet and exercise.


Transcript:

Andrew Schorr:
Greetings. I’m Andrew Schorr coming to you from Quebec City, Canada. I’m delighted to be here, and hopefully some of our Canadian friends are on with us. We’re going it go around the US as well with some leading experts in this important Patient Empowerment Network program produced by Patient Power. And the program is Exercise and Nutrition Before and After Myeloma Treatment, What You Should Know.

And we have some very knowledgeable experts who will fill you in, so take notes, with stuff you can discuss with your caregiver if you’re a patient, with your family members and for you to know so you do as well as you can living with myeloma whether you are going through treatment like transplant or on multiple drugs. Okay.

Lots to talk about, and we have received many of your questions already, but if you have a question send it in to myeloma@patientpower.info, myeloma@patientpower.info. I want to thank the companies that have provided financial support for this program. We’re very grateful to them. They have no editorial control, but they want to support the myeloma community. Those sponsors are AbbVie Incorporated and Celgene Corporation and Takeda Oncology. So thanks to them. All right. Ready to get started?

Let’s go first to Cleveland, Ohio, where he is joining us by phone, and that is my friend Jim Bond. Welcome back to our program. Thank you for being with us, Jim.

Jim Bond:
Oh, you’re welcome. Thank you for having me. It’s good to be here.

Andrew Schorr:
So, Jim, you were diagnosed with multiple myeloma. What is it, like 26 years ago?

Jim Bond:
Yes, in 1992.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. You’ve had a variety of treatments and clinical trials, and you’ve had transplant, and then you also developed a second very serious cancer, AML, so you’ve had altogether I think four transplants. Is that right?

Jim Bond:
That’s right.

Andrew Schorr:
Whoa. Okay. Now, we should mention that in a couple of days, Jim, you are going to once again be on your bicycle four days riding 328 miles. What is that ride that you’re doing now for I think the 12th time?

Jim Bond:
It is the 12th time, and it’s the American Cancer Society Pan Ohio Hope Ride, which my wife Kathleen founded and leads. She got me to ride, and I’ve been able to do it 11 straight years and I’m done training. I trained an hour this morning and I’m ready to go, so in two days we start from Cincinnati and four days later 350 of us will arrive in Cleveland, Ohio.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Well, we’re all riding with you, Jim. Exercise and physical fitness has played a big role for you, and we’re going to come back to that in a minute, and you’re going to tell your story how your commitment to exercise has really helped you survive myeloma and also get the treatment you needed for acute myeloid leukemia, they call it. So we’ll be back to you, but I want to introduce our other experts.

So let’s go to our experts, medical experts who are in Iowa City, Iowa, at the University of Iowa Hospitals first bringing back to one of our programs oncology physical therapist, a veteran in the field, Melanie House. Melanie, welcome to our program today.

Melanie House:
Thank you, Andrew. It’s great to be here.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Thank you. And, Melanie, just to understand, you’ve been working with oncology patients including on the transplant unit there for about how many years?

Melanie House:
Well, oncology patients actually for most of my career. Probably in the early 90s I started working on some of the oncology floors, but I’ve been specific been overseeing the bone marrow transplant unit since January of 2010.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. And they have some myeloma patients who come through there, right, who have transplant?

Melanie House:
Yes. Actually, that’s a significant part of our population, is the folks with multiple myeloma.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. We have a lot to talk about. Okay. But you have a colleague I’d like to introduce who is a dietician with oncology patients and also works on the same floor as there with people who are going through a lot including transplant. So Alexa Welsh, thank you for being with us also from the University of Iowa Hospitals.

Alexa Welch
Glad to be here today.

Andrew Schorr:
How long have you been in the dietician field?

Alexa Welch
I have worked as a the dietician for three years, and then I have worked on the same floor as Melanie with the bone marrow transplant patients now for two years.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Wow. All right. So let’s start with exercise, Melanie. So, you know, I’ve interviewed a number of myeloma patients over the years, and there are some people who find out they have myeloma when a family member gives them a hug and then they have like cracked ribs, and they never knew that they had this illness they never heard of. They never knew that their bones were at risk, and then they go in and they get this diagnosis. And it’s terrifying. So you think, well, gee, if somebody giving me a hug can crack my ribs and I have myeloma how on earth can I exercise? What do you tell people related to these bone issues?

Melanie House:
Well, I always take time to educate my patients on where their lytic lesions or pathologic fractures may be located. In my experience that’s actually an area where patients often don’t realize, perhaps they’ve never viewed their imaging. And I encourage my patients to better understand that because if you don’t realize where those lesions are then you wouldn’t have good information to guide other activities or precautions that you might need to take.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So at step one, know where you have lesions. Step two‑‑but that would freak me out. I’m a leukemia survivor myself and I haven’t had those bone complications, but if I did I would be just terrified to do stuff. But yet, exercise is good for us, right?

Melanie House:
Well, I think‑‑yes. Exercise is good for you as long as it’s in the proper dose, right? And so it needs to be the right intensity, the right frequency, the right load. And so that’s where you really need to work with a professional who has good understanding of where your lesions are and understands the different biomechanical principles. You know, how the muscles might pull on that bone, that could be good or bad. How posture or lifting technique might impact your fracture risk.

So it’s important that there is a professional who’s knowledgeable working with you, a physical therapist that has access to those films or those scans to help inform them giving you the proper prescription for exercise.

Andrew Schorr:
A couple more questions for you now. So some of us know my friends Jack Aiello, who was treated with transplant years ago. He’s doing great. Also like you, Jim, a long‑term survivor of myeloma, but he was left with neuropathy, so he walks with a cane, sometimes he uses a scooter. But yet, you know, he’s aging like all of us and he needs exercise for his body. So what about if you have that complication of neuropathy, which some people do with myeloma?

Melanie House:
As far as exercise, we can find some form of exercise that’s safe anywhere along that spectrum. That all depends on the person’s balance response, their tolerance for weight bearing through their legs because some people have not only those sensory changes but they have more painful kinds of sensory changes with weight bearing.

So, again, it’s very specific to the patient, but the one thing I do want to emphasize about neuropathy is it is not a‑‑I have a lot of patients who say to me, well, I know my balance is bad because I have neuropathy, end of story. And I say to them, well, actually, you know, we have the potential to improve your balance because fortunately your brain is still connected to your muscles through your nerves, and we can recruit other muscles and help them work more efficiently together to improve your balance response.

And so I actually train my patients with neuropathy so that they can improve their balance and have heard countless reports back from patients who were discharged from the hospital and gone on to do outpatient therapy and recovered balance that they never thought they could.

Andrew Schorr:
Wow. How do you do that? Is it like practicing standing on one foot, or give us a clue?

Melanie House:
Well, that is actually‑‑I’m a very practical person, and I work with people that are laborers. You might work with a truck driver or somebody who is a farmer, and these aren’t individuals that are typically going to see (?) a gal at tai chi or something like that, and it is that simple. But if you can challenge yourself in single‑limb balance and do it safely that is really going to force your nervous system to have to respond more quickly and efficiently.

That is actually the test that I do and the exercise that I prescribe, but I set them up to do it safely. So if you can do this test and this exercise standing in a corner in your home where two pieces of dry wall come together with a chair in front of you then you’ve got the walls that can catch you behind and to the sides with the chair in front of you so that you can catch your balance if you need to and when you need to.

Yes, single‑limb balance is a great way to challenge ourselves. And you might get the feedback, well, I never stand on one leg, and to that I say, actually when we walk we’re standing on one leg over and over. So it does prepare a person to be better on uneven surfaces, slopes and conditions like that.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. And we were talking about bone complications, and obviously if you’re worried about these lesions and you fall, which you might if you don’t have the best balance‑‑

Melanie House:
Right.

Andrew Schorr:
‑‑and that triggers more bone issues.

Melanie House:
Correct.

Andrew Schorr:
So we don’t want to really understate balance is important, and many of us and the people typically, not always, with myeloma are older, where balance isn’t as good anyway. So balance, we got to think about balance, right?

Melanie House:
Very important. Very important.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. All right. Let’s talk a little bit about nutrition, Alexa, for a minute. So there you are in the transplant unit, and Melanie was mentioning a number of patients who come through are people being treated for myeloma. When you get blasted or even with less intensive transplant there are a lot of issues about feeling like you can eat. Maybe you have mouth issues, pain, etc.

So first let’s talk about somebody getting ready for transplant because that’s still used in myeloma in some quarters. How can somebody fortify themselves if they’re told, well, transplant is what we’re recommending for you?

Alexa Welch
So one of the most important things we want patients to be aware of before transplant is maintaining your weight. Try not to lose any weight. We don’t want you losing muscle or losing strength at all before transplant. So eating a well‑balanced diet while you can, while your appetite is still good. Eat from all the food groups. Get your fruits and veggies in. Get your proteins in. Keep your muscles strong. Keep your weight up. That’s pretty much the coming into transplant being prepped and as strong as possible.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. But you’re sick going into transplant, so is this like I don’t want to say force feeding, but mean if there’s a care partner there, are they saying, George, eat your vegetables. You’re 72 years old. I mean what‑‑is it‑‑you have to make an effort I guess.

Alexa Welch
Yes, so actually most of the time when I see patients present on day one of hospital admission they are usually feeling pretty well and have been eating well at home and actually have not been losing weight usually. So sometimes when they’re first diagnosed they’ve lost some weight. They weren’t eating well. They were tired, they didn’t know why. That is usually behind them before they come in for transplant.

So typically actually when they get here they are feeling pretty good and have been eating pretty well. It’s going into their admission where they’re getting the chemo and they’re getting transplant that they start to not feel very well again.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Let’s talk about that. So people‑‑and of course we have groups in myeloma going through different kinds of treatment. Let’s talk about transplant for a second. If they’re on your unit how do you help them with their diet when, let’s face it, this is rough business. And Jim’s been through it four times. We’ll talk to him about it. But from your point of view how do you help people stay strong?

Alexa Welch
Yes, nutrition is very individualized just like Melanie was saying can for exercise. You just kind of have to figure out where the patient is and what they’re struggling with most. Some of the most common side effects are going to be loss of appetite, mouth sores, nausea, vomiting. We kind of take each of those individually.

So loss of appetite, typically we recommend doing smaller meals more often throughout the day instead of forcing yourself to eat three big meals. When you don’t have an appetite and you’re not hungry and you’re forcing food down sometimes it’s easier to force a smaller amount and try that every couple hours instead of sitting down to a big, overwhelming meal that you can barely even get three bites down and then you just feel hopeless because there’s no way you can finish all that food at once.

So sometimes just having snacks like peanut butter and crackers or fruit and cottage cheese or something small like that and breaking that up throughout the day helps get in enough calories and protein so that you’re not losing weight or losing strength. So usually that is what we do for loss of appetite when you are kind of force feeding. And then when you get to that point we’re not really super worried about eating from all the food groups, so if you’re not able to get your fruits or your veggies in for those few days I’m not going to be super concerned. Or a milkshake is the only thing that sounds good, then absolutely we want you getting your calories and getting your protein that way.

Andrew Schorr:
I’m glad to hear you say that because my‑‑my little kid when I went through chemo would bring me a great chocolate milkshake and I didn’t feel guilty at all. So that’s okay. You’re giving us permission.

Alexa Welch
Absolutely, yes. Absolutely. And I think most of my doctors and team agree with that, that if that’s the only thing that they can get down, then we’re definitely not telling them that they cannot have that.

For nausea and vomiting, usually our pharmacists and our doctors have medications that they can get on board to help, antinausea, antivomiting medications that help control that. And then from my end I just make sure my patients know that right after they get a dose of that medication is when they should try to order some food or eat some food so that that’s fully kicked in and they can try to get as much food down and keep it down as possible. Obviously, if you’re force feeding yourself and it’s going to come back up, it doesn’t do any good. So medication does usually help control the nausea. We’ve just got to make sure that we find the right cocktail for them.

Andrew Schorr:
All right. Post‑transplant, and this may be for people who are on these two‑, three‑, four‑drug combinations now for myeloma, what are you recommending now for a healthy diet? We’re doing some recipes on our website and people say try this, try that, but what are you recommending so that people can regain their strength or be as strong as they can because they’re probably getting some ongoing medicine?

Alexa Welch
Yeah, so appetite usually is kind of slow to come back after transplant. I do hear from my patients who have left and then either come back for a second transplant or hear from our outpatient dietician that works with them that going home just helps your appetite too. Being able to eat your own food in your own home helps a lot. Usually as soon as appetite comes back patients are able to kind of eat, you know, back to normal, back to three meals a day instead of snacking throughout the day.

Recovering, honestly, is still just adequate calories, adequate protein so that they’re still not losing weight. I still never encourage weight loss even after transplant is done because that can be muscle loss and can affect your strength overall. We want you to not be losing weight after transplant as well. And then in general I do a food safety education with patients before they leave the hospital, so making sure‑‑you know, because after transplant your immune system is still not perfect, and we want to make sure that we are eliminating as much bacteria from the food you’re eating so that doesn’t cause any issues, you don’t get any food‑borne illnesses. So we go over that kind of stuff.

Besides the food safety and then adequate calories, adequate protein, you know, weighing themselves, making sure they’re not losing weight. That’s pretty much it. We just want you to stay strong and make sure you’re eating well. And then once you are feeling a little bit better focusing again back on that balanced nutrition, so eating from all the food groups and getting your fruits and veggies in and all that.

Andrew Schorr:
One last question for you now. So there are these products you can get at the supermarket, you know I don’t know the different brands, Ensure and I’m sure there are other brands, high calorie. Do you recommend that to people if they’re not eating a plateful of food?

Alexa Welsh:
Yes, absolutely, especially when they’re in the hospital and their appetites are bad and they’re not eating very much food or they can’t force down solids sometimes liquids do go down better. We use Ensure here. That’s just who our contract is through, but Boost is an equivalent. Equate, or the Walmart brand make their own. That’s an equivalent. I think Costco and Sam’s will have their own.

They all essentially serve the same purpose, which is higher calorie, higher protein in a smaller amount and so that you’re not again having to force feed yourself all day long when you don’t feel well. I would say those are indicated again when your appetite is not very good or you’re having issuing with nausea and vomiting and maybe that’s the only thing that stays down. But once your appetite is back and you’re eating better those aren’t really necessary as soon as you’re able to maintain your weight on just food.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. We have a lot more to talk about about food and exercise, but Jim’s lived this. So, Jim, you’ve been through transplant. You’ve been 26 some‑odd years. You’re riding a bike, but you’ve been in and out of hospitals and you’ve had your highs and lows. First of all about exercise. Jim Bond, what would you say to people about the benefit of exercise when you have this diagnosis?

Jim Bond:
I’d say it’s one of the key reasons that I’m alive today. And, Alexa, I agree with everything you said, and I’d just like to add a couple personal notes on my diet. I have gone through four stem cell transplants, and what I made myself do is get out of bed, starting with the first one, and it was hard because I was knocked down with the drugs they gave me. But I found that by getting out of bed and then when I was able take a few steps, and then walking around the floor pulling my IV behind me, it gave me‑‑it gave me‑‑it would tire me out, keep me from sleeping in the afternoon, and it actually helped stimulate my appetite. So I would recommend that you try that as much as you can.

If you can’t get out of bed yet just make yourself‑‑I made myself sit up in the bed as long as I could, and that sounds trivial but at times it was not trivial. And, Alexa, my wife, Kathleen, who is my caregiver, she found a high‑calorie, high‑protein drink that she brought in, and I found different flavors work for me. Orange was my favorite. But that was‑‑to me is what was key.

I found what appealed to me food‑wise, and I just ate as much of that as I could. I didn’t worry too much about three food groups. I was too sick. But when I found something that worked for me I would do it. I would also order all three of my meals when I woke up in the morning, and when they arrived that gave me the motivation to, okay, try something. If I put off ordering, then I might not even have the desire to order. So that was a little bit helpful for me.

But exercise has been key throughout my battle with cancers. In fact, exercise saved my life, as you referred earlier. I was‑‑I was 64 years old. I had lived with myeloma successfully for I don’t know many years, and then I got leukemia. And it was the kind of leukemia that’s treatment related and they said, hey, Jim, the only way you can live is by getting yet another transplant.

So they threw me in the hospital for what turned out to be three months solid. They got my leukemia down. They found a match on the matching database, and they came in my room, and I was thrilled. I said, great. When do I get the stem cells? And they said, well, we’re not sure you can live through another transplant, and I said, but that’s the only way I can live. And they said, but we can’t kill you.

So I pleaded my case. They came back and they said, Jim, the doctors who were voting against you on our committee, they changed their mind and voted yes when they heard that two months ago you cycled 328 miles, four days in the American Cancer Society Pan Ohio Hope Ride a month ago. So the exercise of not only training and riding in the bike but just every day doing something, that saved my life because they were not going to give me that‑‑turned out to be a German woman’s stem cells. They said I was not a good risk until they heard what exercise did for me.

And that’s really been true all through this thing. By exercising, doing something every day, I think it made my body able to take more and more treatments because, as we know, today myeloma is still not curable so when it comes back I want to be as strong as I can to make myself tolerate another one. Now, each day what I think of as my mantra is to be on my feet not on my seat. And right now I’m standing up talking to you because I think even standing is better than sitting. And Melanie’s great guidance at a seminar we were at helped me understand that walking is really good for us and standing is better than sitting. Sometimes it’s hard, but I make myself do that.

Andrew Schorr:
Right. Oh, boy, what a great story. And now let’s go to the guru here, Melanie. So, Melanie, I got as a Father’s Day gift a Fitbit. Somebody may get a bigger one, a smaller one, an Apple watch or just count their steps somehow. So today Esther and I are in Quebec City, where we are partly on vacation. We did 11,000 steps. And I’m a two‑time cancer survivor, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and myelofibrosis.

So, Melanie, just walking, is that good? I mean, I didn’t jog and I didn’t lift weights today, but I walked.

Melanie House:
So that is a huge accomplishment, especially when you think about what you achieved by walking. Something that people don’t realize is that‑‑earlier you mentioned the importance of load bearing to the bones in order to stimulate bone density. Well, people don’t realize that when we’re walking because of our body weight and the influence of gravity when your foot hits the ground your bones actually experience about one and a half times your body weight. So you are actually doing an appropriate dose of loading in those long bones in your legs, for example. So you’ve gotten some weight bearing in. You’ve gotten some endurance exercise in. Helps to build your cardiovascular system.

And the other thing is that walking I do want to mention because a lot of my patients, they’re very fixated on walking and I applaud them, but if we are trying to prepare people to be able to do other things like climb their stairs, then we do have to add a different type of exercise to prepare them for that.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. What’s that? So how do I‑‑or our friend Cindy (?) Chimileski and some of the other myeloma patients have even done these mountain climbs, which have been incredible. But how do you prepare for climbing? Steps or mountain?

Melanie House:
So as it turns out, you practice for the test for most things. So if what you need to be able to do is climb stairs we need to either be climbing stairs while you are in the hospital, or in our case because we know that our patients are prone to getting low blood pressures while they’re here, it’s usually I think a side effect of the chemotherapy, then we have gone to what what’s called the NuStep. That’s the name of an exercise machine that is basically a seated stepper. So that is one way that we’re able to get people working on their stair climbing muscles in a safe with way while they’re hospitalized.

But even an exercise like bridging that’s something that can be done lying in the bed. For my patients that can’t get in the hallway we’re doing a bridging exercise which is working all of the same muscles at zero percent risk of falling down because they’re already laying in bed.

And some people like to do squat exercises which can be done and should be done over a chair or over the bed. But the one precaution there if you are dealing with fluctuations in blood pressure is if you’re doing that sit‑to‑stand motion repeatedly that could bring on that sense of light‑headedness or weakness because of the drop in blood pressure.

Andrew Schorr:
We talked about bone complications, and we were talking about people going through transplant, different medicines. So we have highs and lows with any of these blood cancers. So you and I were talking before the program and you were talking about people being aware of their numbers, their blood test numbers.

Melanie House:
Right.

Andrew Schorr:
So talk about that a little bit as to us having a clear idea of where we are, not just do we have a lesion in a bone somewhere but about our blood.

Melanie House:
So the most common complaint that I hear people say is I’m just so tired, or I get short of breath when I’m doing stairs or walking, and I think there were each some participants today that sent in some questions asking about what can I do to address my shortness of breath. And the first thing that I think about as a clinician is where are your numbers at for your hemoglobin or your red blood cell count, because our red blood cells, they are the vehicles that actually deliver oxygen to our muscles and to our brain.

And one of the most important muscles that must get oxygen is actually your heart, and so it is important to recognize whether you’re anemic. If you’re anemic I can tell you right now there is not a single reference that I could find that would support you or support me prescribing you vigorous aerobic exercise because anemia means you’re at about half of your normal amount of red blood cells yet you’re trying to do vigorous exercise. The muscles that are doing the work are going to aggressively be pulling those oxygen molecules off of the red blood cells, but you only have half the number of red blood cells that you should have to deliver oxygen.

So it doesn’t matter if your oxygen saturation probe says you’re 100 saturated. That just means that those half of your red blood cells that you have happen to be fully loaded, but there’s not enough of them to safely do vigorous aerobic exercise, and your heart could suffer the consequences. I’ve had patients who actually did induce a heart attack just from walking at a time when their hemoglobin was very low and when their blood pressure was low.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So let’s go over a couple things we talked about with you. One is related to bone complications, understand where you have bones that are at risk.

Melanie House:
Correct.

Andrew Schorr:
Right? Okay. That’s the first thing. And hopefully there are bone‑‑there are medications now that some people have discussed with their doctor that can try to slow the progression of those bone complications. Okay. So that’s part one. Part two is you talked about balance. That’s so important. Even if you have neuropathy don’t be freaked out that you can’t develop balance. And then related to knowing your blood counts so that what you’re pushing your body to do is healthy.

Melanie House:
Correct. Right.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. All right. Got it. We’re going to come back for some more. I want to get some specific exercises. So walking is good. Climbing, if you have stairs in your house, those kinds of things, or if you’re training for one of these myeloma challenge trips, whatever it is, we’ll talk about that more in a minute.

Alexa, so we talked‑‑you keep saying, you know, fruits and vegetables and balanced diet and all that, but patients we have are friends in the myeloma community say, well I’m going to do this special diet in their effort to take back to control where cancer has kind of tried to take control away from them. So how do you feel about special diets, whether it’s meat, vegan, you know? How do you feel about that?

Alexa Welch
So some of those diets just end up being overly restrictive or totally cut out certain food groups, which is not‑‑I mean, there is just not enough evidence out there to support any of those restrictive diets actually really helping. Cutting out food groups like that sometimes results in weight loss, which, as I have mentioned a few times before, that’s definitely not the goal. We don’t want you losing weight. Don’t want you losing muscle.

And a lot of times when you’re sick and you have cancer and you’re going through treatment, any time you’re losing weight unfortunately it’s muscle loss. It’s not fat loss. And so then again that results in weakness and poor outcomes as far as response to treatment and recovery. So, yeah, some of those special diets, I mean, I would have to take it patient by patient if they feel very strongly about it, but, yeah, a lot of times they’re just really restrictive on certain food groups that they can’t have or should cut out totally. So I don’t usually recommend those.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So a couple of questions. Maybe these are myths or not. So some people have wondered, does sugar intake feed the cancer cells?

Alexa Welch
So a lot of the foods that we eat, all carbohydrate food, so whether it’s fruit, grains, rice, milk has carbohydrates in it, any carbohydrate that we take in will break down to a molecule called glucose, which are‑‑all of our cells in our body need glucose to function properly. It’s the energy that they use. So whether those carbohydrates are coming from sugar, artificial sugars or added sugars or natural sugars from fruits, they all break down to glucose.

We cannot control which cells get the glucose that we take in. Once we eat it, our body does with it what it will, so the cancer cells just happen to be very glucose hungry all the time, so they will take up and use a lot of that glucose. That being said, if you’re not eating enough glucose or not eating enough carbohydrates in general your body will break down your muscle stores to get that glucose.

And that is why you don’t want to be restricting certain food groups, especially carbohydrates because the rest of your body still needs the energy to carry on the normal functions of everyday life. So you shouldn’t be cutting out some of those food groups like the carbohydrates that are fueling the rest of your body too.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Another question, juicing. So people have all kinds of‑‑there are juicers you can buy, and your best friend down the street will say, oh, you’ve been diagnosed with cancer and you should be juicing, carrot juice and this juice and that juice. Any comment about that?

Alexa Welch
Yeah, so I just don’t see the issue with eating the whole food is. The whole fruit or the whole vegetable that you’re juicing, you’re taking out a lot of the fiber. You’re taking out a lot of what keeps you full, the substance to it, so then you’re having to spend a ton of money on groceries relies to get less benefit, if you ask me, because you’re taking out, again, that fiber that’s very beneficial for keeping you full, helps cholesterol.

So those are not things that you want to be leaving out of those foods that you’re taking in. You still get all the vitamins, all the minerals from those fruits and vegetables, but, yeah, eating the whole thing is more beneficial.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. You were being conscious of our diet at the grocery store. What about the health food store, the pharmacy about dietary supplements? Comments about that?

Alexa Welch
Yeah. So one thing to be careful about any over‑the‑counter supplements like that are not FDA regulated. So you want to be careful that if you’re taking any dietary supplements, herbal supplements, any extra vitamin, C, A, whatever, that you’re clearing that with your doctor, your physician, your oncologist, your pharmacist, talking to your medical team about that and making sure that they are okay with you taking those extra supplements. Again, they are not FDA regulated, so just because they say something is in it, that hasn’t been tested. So you want to be very careful about that.

And some of those supplements can interact with certain chemo drugs. There are certain medications that you might be on every day, so you want to again clear that with either a pharmacist or a physician to make sure that it’s okay if you’re going to take any supplements like that.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So when I go to the gym they have a little store in the front, and they have those huge jars of protein powder. So you’re saying even that, check with my doctor.

Alexa Welch
Yes. Especially‑‑I mean, you want to make sure that if you’re going to do the protein powders like you want to make sure that it’s a brand that you trust. So in general bigger brands like Walmart’s brand or some of the‑‑like Abbott, who we get Ensure from, they have their own brand of protein. Some bigger brands like that are going to be ones that you can trust because if they were putting‑‑you know, you hear myths about people having like actually sawdust in their protein instead of real protein powder.

So those are the kinds of things you want to avoid. Usually big companies like that are more trustworthy because if they were found to have bad ingredients in their protein powders they would have more to lose essentially than some of the little companies you’re buying online that you don’t want to necessarily trust. Generally, if it says 100 percent whey protein 100 percent soy protein, those are a little bit more trustworthy.

And always, again, good idea to just run it by your doctor make sure they’re okay with it, or ask the dietician to read the label for you. Some grocery stores have dieticians that work there. Some gyms have dieticians, so use your resources.

Andrew Schorr:
Right. I will mention to people now, so we go to this ASH, American Society of Hematology medical meeting, thousands of doctors talking about myeloma among other cancers from around the world, and so now we’re talking about often four‑drug combinations for people with myeloma. So if you go into a store they don’t know that you’re taking drug A, B, C, D. They probably never heard of them nor know the profiles of those drugs and how it will line up with something they’re going to offer you. You’re not just a super healthy person who is taking no drugs coming off the street, so you have to check.

Okay. So, Jim, you’ve been listening, and you’re about to ride in a couple of days again 328 files. Now you’re of course just a subject of one, but, Jim, what do you eat? What is your diet, whether it’s when you’re doing these rides or just day in day out?

Jim Bond:
I get asked that a lot, and there’s a lot of people that really do focus on special diets. I do not focus on anything special in my diet. I focus on trying to maintain my weight. I do exercise, and for some reason since I’ve had cancer and the transplants I really have to make myself eat as much what I consider healthy food. For example, my lunch today consisted of a meat sandwich, potato chips and an apple. And that’s typical. And for breakfast I eat eggs, meat, toast and potatoes, which is‑‑turns out to be my best meal. It’s my best appetite. And a normal dinner, you know.

Yeah, we have vegetables. We have meat. I love corn on the cob in Ohio. It’s great. But I don’t worry about anything really special. I want to keep my weight up. So when I go in, and I do go in monthly for a bone strengthener I’ve been getting for 24 years now, the biggest surprise for me is, okay, how did I do on weight this month. And when it’s higher I’m happy. And typically the nurses frown at me because they’re trying to lose a little weight, but I’m always trying to maintain or keep my weight.

Now, another reason‑‑I do pound a lot of liquids. My kidneys, I was told, because of the type of myeloma I had, I was told, look, Jim, your kidneys and your bones are at risk. So they said drink, keep yourself well hydrated especially when you’re riding your bike in the summer in July in Ohio. So I drink a lot of water with something in it, you know, a Gatorade or something flavored, not just pure water. But that’s really important to me.

And yeah, it’s inconvenient. Gets me up a lot at night, you know, going to the bathroom, but I believe it’s worth it. And it drives my sodium down. When I get my chems every quarter my glucose and the rest of them are fine, but it’s all I can do to get my sodium into the normal range. So, believe it or not, even with the doctor’s okay they said, Jim, eat more salty foods, which I know is kind of weird, but that’s the way I roll, and so I really don’t worry about that.

It’s the bones though. I do worry about my bones. I’ve had a lot of bone involvement. I’ve got metal holding some of them together, but I’m lucky enough to be able to walk on my own, ride my bike. But it’s taught me, Jim, cut down on the risk. Stay off ice. Stay off step ladders, stay off stools. It’s just not worth it. So I try to do that.

But one comment you made is be sure to check with your doctor on what seems like it’s something that’s not worth it. Green tea is a good example of something a friend of mine who is a myeloma patient had no idea he should have cleared that with his doctor. Because he thought green tea, that’s fine, only to find out from his doctor, no, the medication he was taking was actually nullified by the green tea. So it’s really a good idea to run what you think is not very harmful, run those things by your doctor or nurse and make sure they’re okay with that.

But every case is different, like you said, (?) Jack, and for some reason it’s worked out pretty well for me. But I do take a few‑‑I do take a few vitamins that leading hospitals have recommended, and they’re for neuropathy and hopefully to keep the myeloma away. And I’m happy to share things, but you can get me‑‑you can find me on the internet or through somebody.

But the thing is you can’t just willy‑nilly take things. You’ve got to run them through your medical team because your case is, you’re own case, each case is different, and, sure, it’s great to talk to people but just run it by somebody.

Andrew Schorr:
Right. All good points. Okay. We’ve been getting in questions, and if you have a question now send it in to myeloma@patientpower.info, myeloma@patientpower.info.

Here’s a question we got in from Laurie. Laurie says, my husband has 13 vertebral fractures from his myeloma. He’s not a candidate for the various surgeries (?) Inaudible, kyphoplasty, etc., to do repairs, so he’s been doing plank exercises for two years, and he has a brace and support.

So one of the things he’s wondering is could tape, Melanie, like athletes do, kind of some kind of taping when he does exercise be supportive for him? Would that be a good idea, like athletic tape?

Melanie House:
Well, actually it’s a little bit different. I think the tape we’re referring to is a little different than athletic tape. It’s called Kinesio tape, and it’s been around since the 70s actually, and it is something that has been shown to help with musculoskeletal types of pain, so it could be worth exploring. If this is the same question I’m thinking of, this individual complains of the pain that radiates around the bottom of the ribs.

Andrew Schorr:
Correct.

Melanie House:
That sounds like it’s probably one of the intercostal nerves that could have some compression on it perhaps due to where the vertebrae has lost its height and therefore the rib is getting compressed and maybe pressing on a nerve. So yes, there’s some potential there. If there could be some lift appreciated on one of the ribs or just to create a little more space there.

The other thing that I thought about is when we’re laying flat‑‑I hear this all the time. I just had a patient today say to me, well, I was six‑foot‑three but not anymore, and this individual just had some back surgery done, fused his lumbar spine. And so I explained to him that it’s best if we put his back brace on when he’s laying down because that’s when the vertebrae are off‑loaded so your disks are at their maximal height, and if you can put a brace on laying down and put it on so it’s comfortable but snug, once you sit up you’ve done the supporting that you’ve needed to before everything tries to collapse.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Good points. Mike Furlow sending this question. He said he discovered myeloma when a plasmacytoma broke my humerus near my shoulder. My bone scan and CT scan showed no other significant lesions, but he later found significant damage to my right ankle during the surgery. So he’s wondering, is it safe to assume I have damage elsewhere? He just doesn’t know what to do. And so do I have to be particularly careful about bone injuries going forward. He’s worried. What do you say?

Melanie House:
Yeah. This sounds like a classic case where you know there’s got to be‑‑there could be some other problem in there but you can’t see it, you don’t know about it, so that fear creeps in, and that could paralyze somebody really from doing exercise that could be benefitting them.

So I would definitely recommend that he meet with his doctor or primary care provider who has access to his films, his recent scans, so like a whole‑body MRI or the PET scan, and go through, where are the lesions that I should be concerned about, and how would that guide my exercises or working with a physical therapist to come up with a safe program. Because if you don’t know where they are and you fear that there’s something electric there, I’m going to do the same thing. I’m going to think it’s safest to stay in my recliner probably.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. So Jim mentioned a couple‑‑he mentioned a lot of significant things a minute ago, but he was saying that he knows given his bone complications there’s certain things that he’s going to avoid. He lives in Cleveland. In the winter he’s going to be real careful about ice. And if his wife says, gee, can you change a light bulb up there and it means going up on the step ladder, he’s not doing it. Okay?

Melanie House:
(?) And she probably wouldn’t ask.

Andrew Schorr:
She won’t ask, right. So the point is what about changing sort of activities in daily living so you can be active but be safe?

Melanie House:
Well, the first thing that comes to mind, and this is again going back to where I am most concerned for my myeloma patients, and that is the vertebral fractures because I‑‑it’s just‑‑it’s so sad to me when I see folks losing, progressively losing their height knowing it’s because these vertebrae are literally collapsing, and the biggest force that causes the collapse is flexion.

So when you think about in your daily life how often do you have to flex. Oh, I have to bend over to put my shoe on, I’m pulling my sock up. Oh, I dropped the paper, or maybe I’m picking something up off the floor that normally sits there like the food bowl for my cat. And so these motions can result in significant pressure forces going down the front of the vertebrae that actually lead to their collapse.

So one way that a person can change the way they’re moving throughout the day is hamstring stretching is a good start because the longer your hamstrings are the less you have to flex through your lumbar spine. But for others it’s beneficial to even use adaptive equipment. Like our occupational therapist will train people on how to use something called a reacher, and that just allows you to be able to bend over safely but not bend too far and still pick an item up so you’re at less risk of losing your balance and falling but also less risk of causing those flexion compression fractures of the spine.

Andrew Schorr:
Well, so you’re saying don’t bend down for the cat’s bowl. Maybe there’s some grabber or something will help you do it?

Melanie House:
Well, in that case‑‑I mean, there’s different ways to approach it. If you can squat rather than bend. The thing is that we all have our habits, and we don’t even realize what we’re doing until we see a video of ourselves or someone points it out. But if you know you’re at risk for compression fractures in your spine, going through some training to actually learn what ways could I move differently, what strategies could I use that are safe and still let me do the things I need to do, there’s always a way to accomplish it. It’s just that it’s very individualized for each person.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Remember, send in your questions to myeloma@patientpower.info.

Here’s another one again for you, Melanie, from Paula. Any thoughts on interval training or other techniques to help my body use oxygen more efficiently? So interval training, that would be like running for two minutes and then walking and running or longer. If you kind of start, stop, right?

Melanie House:
Yes. And interval training, I use interval training for patients in the hospital who can only walk 10 or 15 feet and have to sit and rest. We can call that interval training. Or, like you just said, it could be something like being on a bike or walking or jogging where you’re just doing that higher intensity and then you do the lower intensity.

So for each individual you have to find that right combination of exercise that’s still safe for you, but the first thing that I would think of in this question is again back to, okay, what are your lab values? If you’re hemoglobin is low, if you happen to be anemic, then you really do have to listen to your body. If you’re feeling short of breath, you should not be pushing through that.

So, yes, interval training would actually help you to build your endurance and your total distance that you could walk, and that to me suggests that you’re listening to your body and you’re slowing down when your body is telling you need to.

Andrew Schorr:
Okay. Alexa, lab values are not just about hemoglobin, but they’re also about creatinine. Jim was talking about kidneys. Certainly patients are at risk for kidney problems. My doctor says every time I see him, Andrew, drink more water, drink more water, drink more water. Jim was talking about that too. And also looking at whether we’re getting enough of different minerals as well. So that can show up in our lab values too. We should be aware of those, right?

Alexa Welch
Absolutely. Your doctor can test you for any vitamin deficiencies as well. Yep, your labs are very telling for, you know, if you’re hydrating properly, if you’re well nourished. But yeah, so definitely I think you’re doing the right thing staying hydrated and making sure you’re getting enough liquids. That’s definitely the best thing, one of the best thing for your kidneys.

Andrew Schorr:
There you go. I’m going to drink some more in a second. But I‑‑so, Alexa, and this is for you, Melanie, as well, but first you, Alexa. So what do we do? So you all are at the big university medical center, but even at clinics they often have a dieticians. Increasingly now some of the larger clinics have a physical therapist or maybe consulting one nearby.

Should we consult with you, not just if we’re having a transplant but we’re there for a clinic visit? Can we say, I’d like to see the dietician? I’d like to see the physical therapist because I want to be strong, I want to exercise, I want to eat right. I mean, that’s something we can request, correct?

Alexa Welch
Absolutely. I know here we have a dietician who works out patients specifically just for our cancer patients who are here for clinic visits. Usually her schedule is pretty flexible, and she is able to add patients on same day. So obviously I don’t know how it works everywhere, but every patient should be an advocate for themselves and how they want their treatment to go. So if they’re losing weight and they know they’re not supposed to, then you meet with the dietician and see what they can do differently for calorie boosting, for protein boosting, and same thing I’m assuming with physical therapy as well. You need to be an advocate for yourself. Ask for those consultations if you’re not offered them.

Andrew Schorr:
Melanie, you’d say that?

Melanie House:
Yes. I would agree. And the other thing is actually for physical therapy in most states it is a direct access option for you so you don’t often‑‑depends on what state you live in, but you don’t always have to have a doctor’s referral to be seen by a physical therapist.

That said, you’ve heard me say over and over, if I’m recommending that you see a physical therapist I want that therapist to actually be well informed of your past medical history, any of your lab values, any of your films and your imaging. So some facilities will still request PT counsel just so they have that physician connection and can get all those types of things that they need to know.

Andrew Schorr:
Right. Right. So, again, wherever you may be in the sound of my voice, if you will, all physical therapists are not equal. Melanie is an oncology physical therapist now, and she’s going to understand the risks you have in myeloma. We talked about bone, balance, the lab values, etc., maybe even complications from treatment you’ve had or medicines you’re taking. So somebody needs to see the whole picture. Same with a dietician, right?

Alexa Welch
Yes.

Andrew Schorr:
So trying to see people get the whole picture is important. You’re not going to have that at the health food store. You probably won’t have that at the pharmacy. You need to seek out somebody who’s knowledgeable about this.

So, Jim, a little bit about cancer patient consumerisms. You’ve had to really speak up for yourself. First of all, play a role in your care and speak up for yourself so you get the care you need and deserve. What you would you say to our listeners today so that when you think about diet, exercise, and going on with their life, which many people, and you’re a great example, now with myeloma can, what would you say to them so that they advocate for themselves to get consultants like these on their team?

Jim Bond:
Everybody’s different, and I believe everybody should handle their case the way they’re comfortable. Here’s what my wife and I are very comfortable with. I want to be an equal partner with my medical team. I don’t want to be the boss, and I don’t want to be bossed around. I want to have an equal vote.

And a good example of that is at about the 10‑year mark I was told here in my home town, Jim, you’re done with any treatments available. So you have to go to a hospice. You’re all done. And I said, no, I’m not going to a hospice. I said‑‑and that made the doctor leave the room, angered, but before he left I was able to say I know of a clinical trial that I had gotten word of in an out‑of‑town second opinion in those 10 years, and I said, I’m going to try to get in that clinical trial. And he told me I was wasting my time. I got in it. I was lucky enough to get in it anyhow. Had the leave town.

And I think that’s one of the great examples of being an equal partner. Okay? The doctor had certain advice, and it’s happened before in the 26 years. But I spoke up with my wife’s support, and I said, look, what if we tried it this way? What if we tried that three‑drug mix but without the steroid because I don’t really like to take steroids once I learned it caused one hip to have to get replaced. And the doc says, you know, I’m really not that keen on that, Jim, but I’ll go along with you if you want to run the risk. I said, yeah, I really do, and if it doesn’t work, if the numbers go up, we can always add the steroid later. And, you know, two months later the very popular myeloma doctor called me back and said, Jim, good call on your part. It worked fine without the steroids.

So advocate for yourself. Don’t be afraid to get educated. There’s lots out there. But if you don’t want to that’s okay too. If your way of handling it is different than that, I believe that’s‑‑your way is right for you.

One thing I’d add to the stretching and the back stuff. I’ve got severely curved spine. I’ve lost at least three inches of height, and I’m sure I’m at risk for something back there. But they don’t tell me, Jim, don’t bend or don’t do this. Well, I do stretch my hamstrings daily. That’s very important to me. And what I’ve learned to avoid is lift‑‑I don’t lift heavy objects. So how do you go along with your life? Well, you figure out ways. You know, it’s great that we have luggage that has those rollers on them. I have a briefcase that has rollers on it because I feel the pain. If I lift I’ll feel the pain the next day. So I stay away from lifting.

But, no, I just go ahead and do things. And I try to ask the doctors and nurses, tell me what I should not do, and I listen real carefully and being an equal partner I got to weigh all that, and I let them know where we’re coming out on things. But it’s fine to advocate for yourself and the longer each of you live with myeloma the more you’re going to realize, hey, there’s a lot of flexibility here. No one’s got the answer or we’d have a cure. So there is some flexibility, but you’ve got to use your good judgment and that of your medical team.

Andrew Schorr:
Great advice. So, Melanie, what do you want to leave people with on the importance of exercise wherever you are in your myeloma journey and having the right consultation so you can do what’s wise and what’s safe?

Melanie House:
The most important thing I can say is there’s no better time to start than now, and finding those things‑‑you know, think about what is it that’s important to me? What am I missing out on in my life that I want to get back to, and consult a professional to help them‑‑they will help you achieve those goals to get back to doing those things as best and as safely as possible.

Andrew Schorr:
I’d agree. You know, I have to get immunoglobulin treatment once a month for my‑‑related to my leukemia. Some other people may get that too. And yet in those times like now, in between, I travel. And, you know, so I’m going on with my life and thank god have energy and can do those steps I talked about. So I would urge you to go live your life. And your healthcare team will help you. You can do this exercise or that. And there’s Jim who’s not going to get up on the step stool, but he’s going to do that 328‑mile bike ride for the 12th time. Okay.

So, Alexa, a final comment from you about what you’d say to people about proper nutrition wherever they are in their myeloma journey. What would you say to them?

Alexa Welch
I would say listen to your body. If your body is telling you I’m hungry, eat. If your body is telling you I’m not hungry, maybe not eat but also recognizing that if that’s all day long that you’re not hungry maybe you need to set an alarm on your phone to make sure you’re eating properly. Wherever you’re at in your journey it’s important to listen to your body until your body can’t tell you what it needs anymore, and then after that then you need to start kind of taking over‑‑your mind has to take over and listen to what you need.

Maintaining your weight. And then, like I said, whenever you can eat from all the food groups, and then in the meantime when your struggling to maintain your weight or eat enough overall you want to use those supplements when necessary while talking to your medical team. And supplements I mean by the high‑calorie, high‑protein shakes, not necessarily the herbal supplements.

Andrew Schorr:
All right. Great information. And one great thing I take away from you too is should I need a transplant some day or I’m going through chemo again a chocolate milkshake is okay.

Alexa Welsh:
Yes, absolutely.

Andrew Schorr:
All right I won’t feel guilty about the ones I’ve had in the past. So, Jim, we’re going to leave it with you. So you have this bike ride coming up, the 12th one, for fund‑raising for the American Cancer Society that you wife started in Ohio, god speed to you, Jim. Are you feeling pretty good?

Jim Bond:
I am. I am. I had to shake off a bout of pneumonia a month ago, but I got the clearance to get back on my bike about three or four weeks ago. And they said, take it easy, and if you get tired, you know, get off your bike‑‑and I will‑‑and, you know, I’ve proven I can do it, but, you know. I think we have to all use our common sense on this stuff and live your life like you said. And we can do it. We can be long‑term survivors.

Andrew Schorr:
All right. Well, all the best to you. We are all riding with you, Jim Bond, okay?

Jim Bond:
Thank you.

Andrew Schorr:
All the best. Well, I want to thank Jim joining us from Cleveland getting ready for the bike ride in a couple days. Alexa Welsh joining us from the University of Iowa Hospitals in Iowa City, thank you so much, Alexa. And also Melanie House, joining us once again also from the University of Iowa Hospitals. Great information. Thank you so much.

I want to thank the Patient Empowerment Network for letting these programs flow and what a wonderful service it does to our myeloma community. And I want to thank the companies that have helped fund this program, AbbVie, Takeda and Celgene, thank you for being supporters of the myeloma community.

Remember, there’s a replay that will be available to you soon. Share it with others you know in the community. There will be video clips and sound clips with Jim that will be coming up. There will be a transcript, all coming your way. And discuss it and make sure that you connect with not only other people in the community but people like Alexa and Melanie who are very specialized, who can help you have the right diet and the right exercise for you.

In Quebec City, Canada, I’m Andrew Schorr. Thanks for joining us. Remember, knowledge can be the best medicine of all.


Please remember the opinions expressed on Patient Empowerment Network are not necessarily the views of our sponsors, contributors, partners or PEN. Our discussions are not a substitute for seeking medical advice or care from your own doctor. That’s how you’ll get care that’s most appropriate for you.

Living Well With Multiple Myeloma – How to Maintain Emotional Equilibrium

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How to Maintain Emotional Equilibrium?

Living Well With Myeloma: How to Maintain Emotional Equilibrium from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How do you maintain emotional equilibrium when living with myeloma? Can meditation be a tool to reduce watch-and-wait stress? Can meditation be useful to a care partner? Lori Puente, of California, who serves as a care partner to her husband Dave Puente, a multiple myeloma patient, attributes meditation with helping her cope and maintain stability. Watch as Lori discusses why meditation is “vital” to making her an effective care partner. We will also hear from Danny Parker, who is living with myeloma, on how he uses meditation as a coping tool.

Myeloma Expert Roundtable

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From the annual American Society of Hematology (#ASH16) Conference, Dr. Robert Orlowski leads a panel discussion with four  Myeloma experts about what’s new and exciting in the field of Myeloma. This panel included:

  • David E. Avignan, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Active Staff, Hematology-Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
  • Jennifer Ahlstrom, Patient Advocate and Founder of Myeloma Crowd
  • Noopur Raje, MD, Director, Center for Multiple Myeloma Massachusetts General Hospital
  • Gareth Morgan, MD, PhD, FRCP, FRCPath, Director of the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, The UAMS Myeloma Institute

Check out the full video below to hear from four Myeloma experts:

Myeloma Expert Roundtable from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

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