6 years ago
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The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Myeloma Institute is regarded as one of the best in the world. Patients travel to Arkansas for treatment from points all around the world.
UAMS recently received an $18 million grant from the National Cancer Institute for the Myeloma Institute. The money will be distributed over a five-year period.
Multiple Myeloma is a rare, and deadly blood-related cancer. Right now, there's no cure. But, at UAMS, remission rates have increased from 5 percent to 50 percent.
Ken Weisner was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma in May of this year. He lives in Chicago, but came to UAMS in Little Rock for treatment. As Weisner starts chemotherapy, he can look to people like Kim King of Atlanta for inspiration.
King first realized something was wrong when he crushed vertebrae while playing golf. He says the doctor, "Told me that this was an incurable cancer, multiple myeloma, there was no cure. And that I could anticipate, if I were normal, maybe living 18 months more. And I got angry. I pounded the desk and said, that's not good enough, I want to live more than 18 months."
So, King looked around for the best treatment facility. He told the doctors, "I want to beat this thing. I only have one question, and that's where's the best place in the world for treatment of multiple myeloma? They said, 'Little Rock, Arkansas.'"
King came to UAMS for its clinical trials, with cutting edge treatments like Thalidomide and Stem Cell transplants. That was more than five years ago. Now, King is in remission.
He's one of hundreds of Myeloma patients and their families who celebrated the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy on Wednesday. They're thankful for the research of people like Dr. John Shaughnessy, Director of the Lambert Laboratory of Myeloma Genetics.
Shaughnessy says, "All cancers are caused by genetic defects. So, our job is to try to understand the genetics of myeloma."
Shaughnessy says an $18 million grant from the National Cancer Institute will allow him to keep searching for clues that could help cure multiple myeloma and perhaps other forms of cancer as well. He says, "To be able to see patients doing better, being able to devise new ways to treat them. Whether that's going to happen now or in the next five years, at least we know that we're making progress."
Progress and hope are what these patients ask for. Kim King says, "I think that's a large part of surviving cancer. I think you have to have a will to live. And you've got to really want to live."
The median survival rate for multiple myeloma patients is two and a half to three years. At UAMS, the median survival rate is six to seven years. UAMS treats more than 1,000 multiple myeloma patients each year.
