Chapter 06: Focusing on Myeloma and Perspectives on Myeloma Research and Treatment

Dr. Alexanian discusses his work with erythropoeinin and its impact. He then talks about how myeloma emerged as a research focus. He explains the mindset he uses when he approaches patients as subjects of research. He then explains how competition for patients with blood diseases was controversial at MD Anderson: administrative decisions eventually distributed between departments and eased some of the tension (though this took about ten years). Dr. Alexanian then traces the evolution of his research on myeloma, noting that clinical trials were conducted through the Southwest Oncology Group. In 1969, he was the first to combine melphalan and prednisone, which became the worldwide standard of care for many years. He describes how he worked with others to devise drug combinations.https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1095/thumbnail.jp