FAIRFAX, Va.– Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow that affects more than 30,000 new patients in the United States each year. Today, multiple myeloma is still considered incurable.
Nearly all people with multiple myeloma have early warning signs called “precursor conditions.” Health leaders like the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, one of the world’s leading centers of cancer research and treatment, can better treat this condition if it is detected early, and therefore reduce mortality. Now with their recent announcement about the ambitious PROMISE study, Dana-Farber aims to make multiple myeloma a cancer that is preventable.
By collecting and analyzing data from people who test positive for the early precursor conditions, Dana-Farber will be able to study people before they develop the condition, in order to discover how to better treat – and ultimately prevent – this deadly cancer.
A study of this magnitude requires extensive data collection, as well as an approach to enroll and engage participants from communities traditionally under-represented in biomedical and clinical research. To achieve these aims, Dana-Farber chose to collaborate with Vibrent Health, a digital technology company known for its innovation in precision medicine research solutions and providing researchers a better way to provide eConsent and collect data across electronic medical records, genomics, wearables, surveys, and more.
Dana-Farber will use Vibrent’s platform for informed eConsent to enroll a highly diverse pool of research participants nationwide. Dana-Farber study staff will also use Vibrent’s platform to perform novel data collection through virtual methods and computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI).
The Research Institute will implement patient engagement through Vibrent’s robust privacy-protecting participant portal and comprehensive researcher tools, as well as provide educational content that can be personalized to the patient’s specific and unique needs.
“Using this technology to interact directly with our study participants is so powerful,” said the study’s principal investigator Irene Ghobrial, MD, of Dana-Farber. “Not only will this improve the quality of the research we are able to conduct, but it puts the tools in our participants hands to help us make multiple myeloma a preventable disease.”
For Vibrent Health, this partnership builds on the company’s commitment to improving research data and health outcomes for traditionally underrepresented populations in clinical research.
“Clinical research has long faced limitations because of the available participants,” said Vibrent Health CEO Praduman “PJ” Jain. “Our solutions remove the barriers – whether they are a person’s location, internet connectivity, or physical limitations – so they can contribute to the important work of researchers. By including their data, researchers can create health outcomes that better help these populations.”
The PROMISE Study is currently enrolling participants with a target goal of 30,000 individual participants nationwide, in order to identify 3,000 with the precursor conditions. The resulting dataset will help Dana-Farber to identify the factors that are associated with disease progression and develop potential methods for prevention.
“Five years ago, we told people with precursor conditions of the disease to watch and wait until they experienced symptoms,” said Ghobrial. “By empowering our community, we are understanding who is most likely to develop multiple myeloma in their lifetime and where early interception can be most effective”.
