A new frontier for myeloma treatment

In a UK-first, the fantastic laboratory team at the Churchill Hospital have recently started a project that is hoped to greatly improve the experience for patients with bone cancer and myeloma.

The Laboratory Immunology department at the Churchill is made up of around 50 dedicated staff who work behind the scenes to perform an incredible 750,000 tests a year - one of the largest test repertoires in the UK.

Incredible advances in technology have paved the way for this new project for our OUH laboratory team, partnering with Oxford University who is supporting the equipment needs. The project will look into a new method of monitoring patients with Myeloma using a technique that previously wasn’t available in the UK. This role within the Laboratory Immunology team has been made possible thanks to the generous support of the Doris Field Charitable Trust.

Currently, diagnosis for patients with this type of cancer can only be confirmed by extracting bone marrow from the pelvis – an often painful procedure that is regularly repeated throughout treatment to allow for close monitoring while managing the disease.

The latest advanced technology, supported by our generous Oxford Hospital Charity donor, is hoped to reduce how many bone marrow samples a patient must give and instead tests serum from the patient's blood. Serum samples can also be collected as part of a blood test at an individual’s local GP surgery which removes the need for multiple trips to the hospital during treatment.

This method will provide ongoing monitoring of a patient’s condition as well as allow for better analysis of prognosis to help reassure patients of how their treatment is helping. It also allows for very high sensitivity and accuracy at the point of diagnosis also, and of course is much less intrusive and painful.

Thanks to the support of this wonderful donor, our hospital teams are now undertaking this pioneering research to ultimately provide a greater quality of life for Myeloma patients while managing the disease, reducing the multiple hospital trips for each individual, and better monitor any changes to the disease through treatment and beyond.