Donor Funding: $100,000
Cancer Type: Blood cancers
Cancer Stage: Diagnosis and treatment
Funded in: 2020
Dr Craig Wallington-Beddoe
Flinders University
Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable aggressive cancer of the bone marrow.
In Australia, 1,876 new cases were diagnosed in 2018 with an estimated 5 year survival rate of 50% and treatment costs exceeding $700,000/patient.
We have identified desmoglein-2 (DSG2), a cell surface protein, to be elevated in 35% of MM patients who are 3 times more likely to die within 6 years of diagnosis.
This study examines a new prognostic tool to rapidly identify these patients and new DSG2-targeting therapies.