Josie Hobbs, Scientific Affairs Manager and Stephen Harding, Hevylite Project    Manager defended 3 posters and there were an additional 7 independent posters  featuring Freelite. Angela Dispenzieri from the Mayo Clinic presented during the main programme. Her talk title was 'Impact of Serum Free Light Chain Evaluation in  Monoclonal Gammopathies.'

 

Visitors to our exhibition stand came from all over the world and it was a pleasure to meet with so many of you. There was definitely a heightened interest in Freelite with more customers expressing interest in using Freelite for uses such as prognosis and screening, in addition to monitoring, than ever before.

 

Next year’s meeting will be in Berlin, 4-7 June 2009. See you there!

Abstract submission deadline: 1 March 2009

www.freelite.co.uk

Welcome to Issue 4 of Freelite InSite. In this issue you will find a review of Biennial 2008 held in Bath, an introduction to Hevylite plus further information on           management of MGUS patients. I hope InSite continues to be a valuable source of information to you

 

Kind regards

 

 

2008 Issue 4

At the recent AACC meeting in Washington D.C. there was great interest in Freelite in the poster sessions, with 10 posters on Freelite being presented in one session. These included 3 posters describing the evaluation of Freelite on the Roche Cobas 6000, Roche Cobas Integra 800 and the Beckman Synchron LX20 Pro and 1 poster evaluating Freelite on the Binding Site SPAPLUS analyser. A further poster   examined the statistical analysis of free light chain results between seven nephelometric and turbidimetric platforms. Other Freelite posters discussed Light Chain Escape, impact of impaired renal function on interpretation of serum free light chain results and analytical and clinical correlation of serum free light chain results for the diagnosis and monitoring of monoclonal light-chain diseases. Click here to view a selection of these posters.

Prognostic value of serum free light chain ratio in newly diagnosed          myeloma: proposed incorporation into the international staging system

Snozek CLH, Katzmann, JA, Kyle RA, Dispenzieri A, Larson DR, Therneau TM, Melton III LJ, Kumar S, Greipp PR, Clark RJ, Rajkumar SV.

Leukemia 2008 - Published online 3rd July 2008, www.nature.com/leu

doi: 10.1038/leu.2008.171

 

The study examined a cohort of 1027 newly diagnosed symptomatic multiple      myeloma (MM) patients seen at Mayo Clinic of which 790 patients had sufficient    serum for serum free light chain analysis. The authors concluded that the serum FLC ratio was an independent prognostic variable in MM and addition of the FLC ratio to the International Staging System (ISS) will improve the estimation of prognosis in newly diagnosed MM patients.

Publication review – keep up to date with recent publications
Barbara Maniglia

13th Congress of the European Haematology Association

12-15 June 2008, Copenhagan, Denmark

 

The 13th congress was held in Copenhagen, Denmark June 12-15 and was a great success with over 6600 participants. Webcasts of educational and plenary   sessions are available http://www.multiwebcast.com/eha/2008/13th/

Exhibitions and Meetings - Catching up and planning ahead
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Þ Hevylite™ - early publications on this new assay

Þ Review of conferences

What’s in Issue 5

Biennial 2008 took place in Bath, UK, September 18-19 and was attended by around 400 haematologists, nephrologists and laboratory experts from all over the world. Key opinion leaders presented their experiences with serum free light chain assays and the accompanying benefits offered to patients. Lively discussion helped to add value to the meeting. The poster session was well supported and we are delighted to make available the abstracts for the main programme sessions and also the 46 submitted abstracts here. On a lighter note 300 delegates relaxed and took in Bath's history at the drinks reception, held at the Roman Baths, and enjoyed good food and entertainment during the gala dinner at the Assembly Rooms. We also plan to add some of the oral sessions to our website so keep checking over the coming months.

Biennial 2008 18-19 September, Bath, UK

 

 

Summary: Immunoglobulin Hevylite (HLC) immunoassays:-

1. Are more sensitive than SPE for quantifying monoclonal immunoglobulins.

2. Provide quantitative information compared with IFE and can be more sensitive.

3. Are of clinical value when monitoring patients with monoclonal gammopathies.

4. Provide information on immunoglobulin light chain subsets in

immunohistochemistry.

 

Click here to read more about Hevylite

An Introduction to Analysis of immunoglobulin heavy chain/light chain pairs (Hevylite™)

Don’t forget to visit our webinars page regularly to view webinars held in the USA by Binding Site Inc.

We have recently added a webinar entitled: A Clinical Perspective of Serum Free Light Chain Analysis, presented by Donna E. Reece, M.D., Associate Professor and Director of the Program for Multiple Myeloma and Related Diseases in the Department of Medical Oncology and Hematology at Princess Margaret Hospital/University of Toronto.

Webinars

Healthcare professional viewpoint
Text Box: Guido Tricot, MD, PhD, Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine. “In your clinical practice, how often do you use serum free light chain analysis (sFLC)? When screening (query myeloma)?” In the initial treatment phase, we use it very often. When we give our initial cycle of intensive chemotherapy and with transplantation, we use it basically three times a week to see how quickly we see a response to the treatment. As you know, the sFLCs have a much shorter half-life than the IgG or IgA. It will therefore decrease much faster than intact immunoglobulin. This shorter half-life allows us to assess much faster whether the patients are responding to the treatment or not.” Click here to read the full interview with Guido Tricot where he talks about when he uses Freelite and why. The interview clearly identifies the patient benefits of the testing algorithm used.

Next key meetings:

 

Renal Week http://www.asn-online.org/education_and_meetings/renal_week/

4-9 November 2008 Philadelphia, US

ASH http://www.hematology.org/meetings/2008/index.cfm

6-9 December 2008, San Francisco UK.

12th International Workshop on Myeloma

26 February - 1 March 2009, New Delhi, India.

http://www.mw-delhi09.com/india_welcomes.asp

Barbara Maniglia

Business Development Manager - Freelite

Find out more about serum free light chains at www.freelite.co.uk

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Having problems viewing or printing this newsletter? Click here to view online. Previous editions of InSite can also be read online here.

Click here to view a PowerPoint presentation on MGUS risk stratification given during the recent Freelite UK Roadshow by Dr Josie Hobbs, Scientific Affairs Manager at Binding Site. The presentation reviews MGUS prognostic factors and the latest draft UK Myeloma Forum and Nordic Myeloma Study Group MGUS guidelines. The theoretical basis of the prognostic value of the serum free light chain ratio in MGUS is also discussed.

MGUS Risk Stratification - New draft guidelines

On behalf of Dr Hutchison and Dr Cockwell, I wanted to bring your attention to the EuLITE Trial for which patients are currently being recruited. Please see the summary below and if you wish to discuss inclusion of your patient in this trial please contact Dr Hutchison or Dr Cockwell on the number given at the end. 

 

This study assesses for the first time the possible benefits of ‘Free Light Chain removal Haemodialysis’ in multiple myeloma patients with severe renal failure

 

Patient suitability:

· Acute Renal Failure (GFR<15)

· New Multiple Myeloma

· Cast Nephropathy on Renal Biopsy

 

Not suitable if:

· Know Chronic Renal Failure

· Relapsing Multiple Myeloma

 

Treatment:

· All patients will receive PAD chemotherapy

· Randomised to ‘standard’ HD (high flux, 3 times per week)

· Or ‘FLC removal HD’ (Gambro HCO dialyser, extended sessions)

 

Possible patient?

· Consider referring the patient to a trial centre

· Call either Dr Hutchison or Dr Cockwell on 07500 293638

 

The EuLITE trial is a prospective, randomised, multicentre, open label clinical trial to investigate the clinical benefit of FLC removal haemodialysis in patients with cast nephropathy, dialysis dependent renal failure and de novo multiple myeloma. In total, 90 patients will be recruited to multiple trial sites based in the UK and Germany. The principal sponsor for this study is the University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, U.K. and the chief investigators are clinicians based at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals Birmingham: Dr Paul Cockwell, Consultant Nephrologist, Dr Mark Cook: Consultant Haematologist and Dr Colin Hutchison: Research Fellow.

EuLITE Trial: Patient Recruitment - UK Only