Pathogenic signaling in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a common hematological malignancy of plasma cells, the terminally differentiated B cells that secrete antibodies as part of the adaptive immune response. Significant progress has been made in treating multiple myeloma, but this disease remains largely incurable, and most patients will eventually suffer a relapse of disease that becomes refractory to further therapies. Moreover, a portion of patients with multiple myeloma present with disease that is refractory to all treatments from the initial diagnosis, and no current therapeutic approaches can help. Therefore, the task remains to advance new therapeutic strategies to help these vulnerable patients. One strategy to meet this challenge is to unravel the complex web of pathogenic signaling pathways in malignant plasma cells and use this information to design novel precision medicine strategies to assist these patients most at risk.