IMF, Medscape Oncology Offer Medical Education Series on Continuous Treatment in Myeloma

In partnership with Medscape Oncology, the International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is offering a professional education series on continuous treatment in multiple myeloma, the foundation announced in a press release.

Called “Everything You Need to Know About Continuous Treatment in Multiple Myeloma,” the series of online educational courses is targeted at hematology and oncology specialists, pharmacists and nurses.

The aim is to make clinicians who care for multiple myeloma patients more knowledgeable in areas including maintenance therapy, treatment for transplant-ineligible patients, and management of adverse treatment events. The subject is timely since there is increasing evidence of the benefit of long-term, continuous treatment — as opposed to fixed-duration therapy — in new multiple myeloma patients.

Moderated by Brian G.M. Durie, MD, a multiple myeloma specialist and the IMF board chairman, the continuing medical education (CME) credit series covers a wide range of topics. These include the role of continuous therapy in transplant-ineligible patients, the role of consolidation and maintenance therapy after transplant, best practices for identifying appropriate maintenance therapy for high-risk patients, determining the optimal length of maintenance therapy, management of adverse events in maintenance therapy, and future directions in continuous treatment.

It’s expected that, after finishing the series, participants will have learned more about the available therapy options — including treatment duration — for post-autologous stem cell transplant patients. Autologous stem cell transplants use healthy blood stem cells from patients to replace their own individual diseased or damaged bone marrow. Those completing the course also will be informed of the best practices for optimized patient care, communication, and coordination.

The organizers say participants also should be better able to choose the best therapy for each newly diagnosed transplant-ineligible patient. They also will know what to watch for, and how to identify and treat common treatment-related adverse events in patients receiving consolidation or maintenance therapy.

Panelists include the following myeloma specialists:

• Rafat Abonour, MD, professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine
• Beth Faiman, PhD, nurse practitioner in the multiple myeloma program at the Taussig Cancer Institute at the Cleveland Clinic
• Thomas Martin, MD, clinical professor of medicine and the associate director of the myeloma program at University of California, San Francisco Medical Center
• Joseph Mikhael, MD, professor of applied cancer research and drug discovery at the Translational Genomics Research Institute at City of Hope Cancer Center, and the chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation
• Robert A. Vescio, MD, medical director of the multiple myeloma and amyloidosis program at the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

Visit this site to register.

With 525,000 members in 140 countries, the 30-year-old IMF is the largest foundation focused specifically on multiple myeloma. It has conducted more than 250 educational seminars globally.

In addition to free CME, Medscape Oncology provides breaking medical news plus information about medicine, diseases, and procedures. Medscape, which is presenting the multiple myeloma series, recently hosted a CME series on current treatments and approaches in relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma.