- Some of the main symptoms of the disease are bone pain, nausea for no apparent reason, constipation and loss of appetite.
- According to the WHO, multiple myeloma is the second most common type of hematological cancer in the world.
- One of the main risks of this tumor is the constant relapse of patients.
Tumors are one of the main causes of mortality in the world. Some types such as breast, prostate and lung are the ones that receive the most attention due to their high incidence and mortality, although this does not mean that they are the only ones. There are also others like multiple myeloma that cause human losses and should not go unnoticed.
To begin with, it is a blood neoplasm that occurs mainly in people over 60 years of age. It is generated when plasma cells multiply uncontrollably in the bone marrow.
Another important point to highlight is that it is by no means a minor illness. In fact, it represents the second most common hematological cancer in Mexico and the world.
When was the first case in history identified?
Although he First known case of multiple myeloma was documented in 1844the ability to treat this form of blood cancer continues to evolve as understanding of the cellular underpinnings grows.
With this in mind, a research team from Houston Methodist Hospital provided new evidence on the interactions between multiple myeloma cells and adipocytes. This created a possible new approach to develop therapies against this type of cancer.
While current therapies, such as bortezomib and carfilzomib, have modest success, patients experience a high rate of relapse, therapeutic resistance, or refractory disease after treatment.
Interestingly, bone marrow adipocytes also contribute to the therapeutic resistance of the multiple myeloma through inhibition of chemotherapy-induced tumor cell apoptosis.
In an effort to better understand how the adipocyte-rich bone marrow microenvironment induces resistance to multiple myeloma drugs, Jing Yangwho is an associate professor of oncology at Houston Methodist Hospital, and her team explored intracellular communication between key cellular machinery between multiple myeloma tumor cells and adipocytes, using samples from patients with the disease.
In addition to adipokines, adipocytes also secrete exosomes that play a role in tumor-stroma cell communication as well as stroma-induced tumor drug resistance.
Yang and his team tested the hypothesis that cells in the multiple myeloma modulate the enrichment of LncRNA in adipocyte exosomes which, when internalized, inhibit chemotherapy-induced apoptosis.
Therefore, the results may provide additional insight to improve the clinical efficacy of current treatments within the tumor microenvironment. The important findings in this study may help to improve the understanding of the pathobiology of multiple myeloma and enhance the design of new therapeutic agents.
Also read:
Multiple myeloma, symptoms and importance of timely diagnosis
Hematological cancer is already one of the 10 most frequent in Mexico
Multiple myeloma: 5 essential aspects you should know about this type of cancer