Myeloma

Myeloma, also called multiple myeloma, is a type of blood cancer that develops when plasma cells — infection-fighting blood cells in the immune system — become abnormal and grow and divide uncontrollably to become tumors.

These tumors then crowd out normal blood cells in the patient's bone marrow, weakening the immune system. This may make the patient more susceptible to an infection. The cancerous cells may also travel through the patient's bloodstream and affect bones throughout the body.

City of Hope is among a dozen national centers that treat myeloma with a multidisciplinary team solely focused on this type of cancer.

A National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, City of Hope has been named one of America's top cancer hospitals by U.S. News & World Report for nearly two decades. Through our cancer experts in Duarte, California, as well as Phoenix, Chicago and Atlanta, our blood cancer experts offer leading-edge care and treatments for myeloma.

City of Hope’s growing national system includes its Los Angeles/Duarte campus, a network of clinical care locations across Southern California, a cancer center in Orange County, California, and cancer treatment centers and outpatient facilities in the Atlanta, Chicago and Phoenix regions.

Our Myeloma Program Highlights

City of Hope's myeloma program is staffed with experts who provide leading-edge care and perform innovative research to better understand the disease and to tailor each patient's treatment to his or her goals and myeloma type. Below are a few of the highlights of this program.

• The Judy and Bernard Briskin Center for Multiple Myeloma Research within the Hematologic Malignancies Research Institute is among the largest programs of its kind in California, treating hundreds of new myeloma patients every year. It leads the development of a diverse portfolio of over 15 active phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for all multiple myeloma stages.
  • The center aims to make multiple myeloma and related light-chain amyloidosis manageable and nonlethal through immunotherapy and rational combinatorial therapies.
  • It aggressively pursues research on improved treatments and collaborates with myeloma and amyloid experts nationally and internationally.
• City of Hope offers promising therapies, like gene, CAR T-cell and antibody, that boost the immune system's cancer-fighting response as part of the Kenneth Goldman and Briskin Family Clinical Trials Program.
• Our experts have unrivaled immunotherapy expertise — including involvement in groundbreaking early drug trials like for daratumumab, the first monoclonal antibody approved for successful myeloma treatment.
• We collaborate with the Multiple Myeloma Research Consortium.
• City of Hope is home to one of the most prominent U.S. blood and bone marrow transplant centers. Its innovative approaches include combining transplantation with new therapies.
• We understand unique issues for older patients and use computer models to predict toxicity and tailor treatments for efficacy and fewer side effects.
• Our highly trained, experienced nurses offer outpatient support for bone marrow transplant patients.
• We customize genetic testing and drug therapy to the molecular profile of specific myeloma types.

Each myeloma patient's care includes regular interaction and input from hematologists, oncologists, radiologists and pathologists, nurses, social workers, and specially trained support staff. This team brings together deep experience and diverse perspectives to arrive at the ideal treatment for each patient. Throughout and following treatment, patients are supported and monitored by our survivorship clinics.