Rajkumar tackles defining “cure”.
A five part video series Discussing the topic “Is Myeloma Curable” were Bart Barlogie, M.D., Ph.D., director of the UAMS Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy and professor of medicine in the UAMS College of Medicine, and S. Vincent Rajkumar, M.D., professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
I haven’t watched them all yet, but I’m sure it will be quite informative.
Ok, I’ve watched them all and if you can suffer through the patient example and some of the more technical aspects, you will indeed enjoy the debate, the humor and the admiration these two physicians and researchers have for one another. They are closer in agreement than you would expect. Just different schools of thought and approaches. These debates are incredibly valuable as we push forward in finding some measure of “cure” in multiple myeloma. It helps to shape where the research is going and as we find answers, how we can improve now the QOL of the patient. It’s not enough to survive it. We want to also THRIVE. We don’t ask for much. 🙂
I like very much that we have Rajkumar beating the drum for QOL, though I have sometimes not agreed with his blanket statements, without definition, of QOL. I think it can be as individual as the disease, but I’m very happy that he has focused his attention on this. Then I like that Barlogie is relentless on pushing the envelope in order to attain a sustainable complete response in patients that has durability which makes it worth our personal efforts to go through treatment. Being a trekkie fan, “bravely going where no man has gone before!”
They are both right.
And just between you and me, they didn’t really answer the question. I did glean however that the view from Barlogie is yes. Rajkumar thinks so too, but he wants to change the definition of what constitutes a cure, lower the expectation if you will, of what cure would mean. Regardless, I find these exchanges between researchers always fascinating and enlightening. The title was not mine, it was theirs.