I have been following the progress of one of our patient readers who also lives in the Tampa area.
Richard is getting ready to embark on an exciting ride: He has been accepted into a clinical study which features an experimental monocolonal antibody called BHQ880.
The study is designed to learn whether this newly developed antibody will delay the progression of high risk smoldering myeloma from becoming active multiple myeloma in patients who have never been treated before.
Sponsored by Novartis and hosted by Moffitt Cancer Center, BHZ880 binds to a protein found in your body called Dickkopf 1 (DKK1 for short). DKK1 blocks the ability of bone formation cells called osteoblasts. BHQ880 binds DKK1, which allows bone forming cells to regain their ability to make bone.
Additionally, BHQ880 has also been shown to slow the growth of myeloma cells in laboratory studies. However, according to the study summary materials Richard passed-along to me “it is not known whether BHQ880 will affect the growth of multiple myeloma cells in human subjects.”
The fact Novartis is involved with the development of this new therapy is not surprising, considering the company specializes in working with bone related drug development. For example, the company manufactures the bisphosphonates Aredia and Zometa.
Richard’s health permitting, this will be a 14 month long study. In addition to Moffitt, patients are also being enrolled in 11 other United States cancer centers, as well as cancer centers in France, Germany and Italy.
I’m sure you will all join me in wishing Richard the best of luck! He has promised to keep us updated on his progress.
Thanks much, Richard! It will be interesting to learn more about this international study–and how well BHQ880 works.
Feel good and keep smiling! Pat
February 28th, 2012 at 2:03 pm
Pat, any information from Richard as to what exactly constitues “high risk” SMM in the case of this trial?
February 28th, 2012 at 4:51 pm
Good question, Jeff. I can speculate, but let’s see if I can’t get you something more definitive.
February 29th, 2012 at 9:16 am
Hello Jeff my name is Richard I am the patient that Pat is referring to in the Article about the BHQ880 clinical trial at Moffitt Cancer Center. Now to try and answer your question my Oncologist is the one that assign the diagnosis of High Risk SMM. From the little research I have done on what constitutes the difference between SMM and High Risk SMM is the criteria to enter this study.
Which is is the following:
BMPC ≥ 10% and serum M-protein level ≥ 3 g/dL, OR
BMPC ≥ 10%, serum M-protein level < 3 g/dL, and an abnormal free light chain ratio of 8.0
Platelet count of >100,000 (I added that since they were not going to treat me unless my Platelet count went up above 100,000 was 96,000 the week before they were going to start that delay the first infusion of the BHQ880)
In my particular case my BMPC is > 50% with some abnormal chromosome detected (FISH). My free light chain ratio is 10.6 serum M Protein is 2.2 g/dl. I hope this helps.
To others I will be updating this Blog periodically on how this study is going and myself as well. A big thanks to Pat for all he has done and is doing he has been a big inspiration to me. His past posts on this site and others he has help me understand this cancer and how to deal with it.
Richard
February 29th, 2012 at 11:41 am
Thanks for taking the time to address Jeff’s question, Richard! Good luck in the clinical trial!