In the last decades, survival rates of Multiple Myeloma have been brilliantly improved thanks to the introduction of novel agents: patients diagnosed after 2010 have had higher rates of novel therapy use and better survival outcomes compared with those of earlier years. Most relevant therapeutic advances over the past decades has been the introduction of novel therapies, such as immune-modifying agents (thalidomide and lenalidomide) and proteasome inhibitors (bortezomib), adopted with or without stem cell transplantation.
Moreover, in the last few years, the MM therapeutic “toolbox” has improved further with the approval in new generation IMID (pomalidomide), the monoclonal antibodies, daratumumab and elotuzumab, as well as the new-generation proteasome inhibitors, carfilzomib and ixazomib, waiting for introduction in daily practice of novel agents with new mechanism of action (Belantamab, CAR-T).
At the same time, there is increasing understanding of MM tumor biology, creating the rationale for new combinations of drugs and new therapy development. Discovery of the associated cytogenetic abnormalities confirm the hypothesis that MM is a heterogeneous disease, suggesting that risk-adapted therapies and individualizing treatment will further help improve patient management.
In this scenario, our aim is to create a international team, integrating a big faculty composed by international experts, which will integrate with a group of young researchers with known experience in this disease (“SOHO Multiple Myeloma cantera”), in order to share projects and preclinical and clinical new clinical trials, in different fields of this heterogeneous disease.
The “cantera” (Under40) will be selected through projects’ submission and CV evaluation, which will be performed by the big faculty, and will be able to be integrated in next editions.