Huntsman Cancer Institute joins innovative clinical trials program for blood cancers

Paul Shami, MD, investigator at Huntsman Cancer Institute and professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology and Hematologic Malignancies at the U, is one of the principal investigators involved in the myeloMATCH program.

Patients in the myeloMATCH program start by undergoing a bone marrow biopsy for diagnosis and screening. Depending on the genetic signature of their disease, they are assigned different trials specifically designed for their disease type. Throughout their journey in myeloMATCH, patients are assigned to different tiers of treatment depending on their response to therapy.

One important aspect of myeloMATCH is the use of groundbreaking technology to detect very low levels of disease-;known as measurable residual disease (MRD).

"Not too long ago, a patient would be in remission, and a bone marrow biopsy would look clear under the microscope. But if we use these very sensitive tools to look for very, very low levels of disease, results can be different. Even that low level of residual disease has a negative prognostic impact," says Shami. "But this type of molecular evaluation is not available everywhere, and myeloMATCH provides a systematic strategy to use MRD for treatment assignment."

"The myeloMATCH program gives us more treatment options to offer patients, including older or frail patients who would not be good candidates for aggressive chemotherapy, let alone a bone marrow transplant," says Shami.

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Huntsman Cancer Institue at the University of Utah