MARo
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Bone Marrow Aspirates in Relapsed / Treatment Resistant Multiple Myeloma – Exploiting Metabolic Vulnerabilities to Improve Treatment Response
IRAS ID
304232
Contact name
Philip Weir
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Queen's University Belfast
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 1 months, 31 days
Research summary
Multiple myeloma (plasma cell myeloma) is a haematological malignancy characterised by clonal plasma cell proliferation in the bone marrow. Numerous treatments are now available, but multiple myeloma remains incurable and follows a relapsing remitting pattern with each subsequent line of treatment typically being less effective than the previous as the disease develops resistance. New strategies are required to extend these periods of disease control and reduce resistance to existing effective therapies.
One way that many cancers develop treatment resistance is through alterations to their metabolism. This remains a relatively unexplored area in multiple myeloma research with significant scope for further study.
Patients with multiple myeloma usually get bone marrow aspirate and trephine biopsies taken at the time of initial diagnosis and the local biobank has many of these samples available for research. Multiple myeloma relapse is usually confirmed through testing of blood samples and repeat bone marrow biopsies are rarely performed at relapse. Due to their rarity, the biobank does not contain many relapsed / treatment resistant myeloma bone marrow samples.
To enable in vitro testing of drugs targeting metabolic changes in resistant multiple myeloma, methods of obtaining relapsed / treatment resistant myeloma bone marrow samples are necessary.
This study intends to help address this issue by providing a mechanism for the collection of bone marrow aspirate samples from patients with relapsed / treatment resistant multiple myeloma for use in in vitro testing of drugs targeting metabolic changes with the aim of overcoming or reducing treatment resistance. The bone marrow aspirates will be taken in Belfast City Hospital and in vitro testing will be carried out at Queen’s University Belfast.
REC name
HSC REC A
REC reference
21/NI/0178
Date of REC Opinion
4 Jan 2022
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion