Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research

Description

Debilitating and painful, myeloma and bone cancer are two of the fastest growing diseases in the world. Over one million patients are afflicted with these cancers in the United States alone. And, since breast, prostate and lung cancers often metastasize into bone; these conditions are expected to become even more common in the future.

Now more than ever the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research sees a vital need to focus an independent research effort to develop more effective therapies to improve the quality of life and longevity of patients with these catastrophic diseases. IMBCR president, Dr. James R. Berenson, has spent 28 years working closely on myeloma and bone cancer, and has been privileged to influence the advancement of treatment. This vast experience provides the cornerstone for The Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research and our dedication to this specific and crucial mission.

IMBCR has assembled a renowned team of expert scientists who are dedicated to our research mission. Along with Dr. Berenson, Dr. Haiming Chen, directs the lab team continuing to lead the way to innovative therapies. With a high-level of understanding of these diseases, our expert team focuses on new and promising therapeutic approaches to help lengthen lives and relieve symptoms for patients. This makes our team unique in the world for having the ability to lead the science to revolutionize treatments, and hopefully someday, discover a cure.

The Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research believes that there are key scientific areas in need of additional research effort, many of which are not being fully investigated by other laboratories or institutes. These include the following:

Investigating the "cross-talk" behavior between the cancer cell and bone marrow. Current research focuses on killing the cancer cells that have already grown in the bone, or on rebuilding damaged bone. We have worked to understand the symbiotic relationship and found that there is a connection with the bone "feeding" the cancer. This opens new doors for research that could stop the cancer from growing in the first place by preventing this "feeding" by the bone. This would be revolutionary in helping curb the progression of the disease.

Developing cutting-edge combination therapies that would put the cancer into remission or at least reduce the toxicity of treatment for patients. The Institute has networked with the world’s top scientists and biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies to help create new and advanced ways to revolutionize treatments.

Finding new techniques to develop disease-specific as well as patient-specific treatments. Our team has developed the most effective in vivo models in the world to quickly determine the best combination treatments for the individual patient. With a focused research effort, there is great potential to advance the use of these models to discover new therapies and optimize the use of already available drugs.

Focusing on new genetic targets to identify risk factors that could open the door for stunning advancements in fighting the cancer (such as RNAi and genetic vectors ).

Our team understands the science and how to apply it to patients. We have amassed decades of experience in our ability to outsmart the disease and find inroads to fight these cancers on many innovative levels. The motivation to build the Institute for Myeloma & Bone Cancer Research comes from the core belief that a dedicated, stand-alone organization can accelerate the advancement of scientific research and ultimately help grant millions of people freedom from the symptoms of these devastating diseases.