Road to a Cure

Early diagnosis

Unfortunately, too many myeloma cancer patients are diagnosed at a late stage when symptoms are already well established. This makes that treatment is more challenging. It is therefore vital that we have the infrastructure and facilities in place for earlier diagnosis before symptoms develop. Although awareness and education can help bridge the gap in this area, leveraging scientific knowledge in the smouldering phase of the illness. We believe this can be achieved using detailed genomic information as well as improved blood based tests, and by establishing early treatment research programmes. 

This strategy can also be applied to pre-myeloma conditions such as monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) or smouldering myeloma, which would importantly lead to earlier diagnosis and more informed decision-making for observation or early treatment. This approach would also reduce the incidence of malignant transformation into myeloma, and would therefore significantly lower the associated burden on patient health and on the healthcare system. For more details see [link to SECURE or others]

Road to a cure

Myeloma cancer remains incurable for the vast majority of people diagnosed with this illness. Currently, any new therapies being developed and existing treatments are focused on providing incremental patient benefit and will only extend life expectancy rather than lead to a cure. The OTMC aims to rewrite this narrative, and to change the scope and ambition around myeloma treatment to focus on finding a cure rather than treatment. We believe this is possible if we equip ourselves with better knowledge of the disease, improve quality of care, and connect all activities to change the focus of our efforts on the bigger picture to enable finding a cure. 

The OTMC will have a dedicated team of scientists spanning clinical, experimental and computational research areas as well as health care professionals developing and discovering new treatments with the goal of seeking a cure rather than life-extension.