MMRF Accelerator Magazine Winter 2015 Edition | Page 4

PRECISION MEDICINE THE TIME IS NOW by Kathy Giusti, Executive Chairman and Founder The Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation Multiple myeloma, we now know, is not one disease; it’s many subtypes, each one driven by mutated genes and other abnormalities that affect everything from how aggressive the disease is to how likely a treatment is expected to work. Precisely selecting the best treatment based on a person’s subtype rather than a one-size-fits-all-approach has the power to dramatically transform the way we treat cancer. In some cancer, this approach — known as precision medicine or personalized medicine — already has. Lung cancer patients with tumo