After two horrible flights to get here that warranted both airplanes needing maintenance, I was completely worn out when I arrived in San Diego. I was hoping that this was not going to be a sign that I was going to have a horrible experience.
After greeting the rest of our team at breakfast, I was ready to feed my excitement of being here. As I entered the first set of lectures “Treatment Advances in Multiple Myeloma: Expert Perspectives on Translating Clinical Data to Practice,”I was greeted by familiar faces from the IMF—one, in particular, Dr. Durie.
Within the room, it seemed like there were a thousand myeloma doctors, nurses, and patients anxiously awaiting to hear the panel of myeloma specialists speak about the present state of multiple myeloma treatments. Within that lecture, there were discussions of the future drugs and clinical trials that have been, and will be available.
One of the future drugs that interested me the most is the one that utilizes the HIV drug to help the immune system to fight myeloma. Although ASH is for all hematologic disorders, I am amazed at the number of people that are interested in myeloma in every session that I attended. Could this be the dominating blood cancer that is warranting all the attention? I hope so! This led me to the International Myeloma Working Group breakfast that we could attend on the following morning. Seventeen new physicians were inducted into the group. These are the doctors that I have complete faith in to uncover the hidden cure for multiple myeloma.
I can honestly say that my first few days at ASH have been all that I have expected and then some. This experience is one that has reopened my eyes about the future of myeloma. Not only because of the new drugs and treatment opportunities that are becoming available, but also the feeling I received when I looked around the room and saw the future myeloma specialists learning about this disease.
I am glad that my bad start was not an omen that my entire trip would be horrible. I have made it to ASH16.
