It is an honor and a pleasure to provide an introductory note to this issue of Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center (DF/BWCC)'s "Advances in Hematologic Malignancies," with a focus on multiple myeloma.
This is a most appropriate task because Dana-Farber is a leading light in both research and clinical care of patients with multiple myeloma. Under the leadership of Kenneth Anderson, MD, and Paul Richardson, MD, the DF/BWCC Jerome Lipper Multiple Myeloma Center and LeBow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics have made many important contributions in recent years to improving the management of this challenging disease.
For example, Teru Hideshima, MD, PhD, and Dr. Anderson introduced bortezomib (Velcade) as an important new class agent into the laboratory and subsequently the clinic, where it has become a mainstay of therapy. Drs. Richardson and Anderson have also made important contributions to the development of lenalidomide (Revlimid), which has become an effective and commonly used oral agent for this disease. And Drs. Anderson and Richardson and their colleagues have played a major role in the regulatory approval of bortezomib, lenalidomide, and pomalidomide by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
A large number of young researchers from around the world have been attracted to Dr. Anderson's laboratory at Dana-Farber, which he often describes as "the United Nations of Myeloma." I think of Dr. Anderson's laboratory as the modern-day equivalent of the laboratory of renowned Boston hematologist William Dameshek, MD, (1900-1969), who encouraged young investigators from around the globe to work in his laboratory and then to go out and take leading positions in many institutions throughout the world, especially in the years following World War II.
The articles in this newsletter will be valuable both for patients with multiple myeloma and for physicians and other health care professionals who are caring for these patients.
— Robert A. Kyle, MD, Departments of Medicine and Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, College of Medicine, Mayo Clinic