MGUS and Myeloma

U.S. medical scientists have determined immunity to cancer stem cells might help protect people with a precancerous condition from developing the disease.

Although stem cells hold great promise in the fight against certain diseases, mounting evidence suggests a tumor's growth may depend on cancer stem cells that comprise only a very small subset of the tumor.

But research by scientists at Rockefeller University suggests such cells could be an important target for cancer vaccines.

About 3 percent of adults age 40 years or more test positive for a condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, or MGUS. That condition is relatively benign but in a small number of cases it progresses into multiple myeloma, a cancer of blood plasma cells.

Despite the fact MGUS and myeloma cells are genetically similar, researchers have been unable to determine why most MGUS patients never develop the cancer.

Associate Professor Madhav Dhodapkar and colleagues have determined MGUS patients who naturally develop an immune response to an embryonic stem cell protein called SOX2 appear to be protected against the development of myeloma.

The study appears in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.