By MICHAEL BOYLAN

Staff Writer

There are dozens of types of cancer that affect millions of people each day. Almost everyone knows somebody in their family or circle of friends who has or has had cancer.

The specific causes are not known and new variations of cancer seem to pop up quite often. One of these is multiple myeloma, which has been known in medical circles for some time, but of which the awareness has increased over the last 10-20 years.

Recently, commentator Leroy Powell of WAGA TV lost his battle with multiple myeloma.

Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that affects the bone marrow. It grows in the marrow and damages the bone. There are slight possibilites of it spreading to other areas, but these instances are rare. There has been a dramatic increase in cases of myeloma and what is so shocking is that these cases are occuring in younger people. In fact, since World War II there has been an across the board increase in all types of cancer.

One of the reasons that people are more aware of multiple myeloma and the treatments available is because of the efforts of the International Myeloma Foundation. The foundation was formed by Susie Novis and Dr. Brian Durie. Novis did not know about multiple myeloma until her husband, Brian, was diagnosed with it. Because there was not a lot of information available and because there was not a way to unite any recent discoveries, the Novises formed the International Myeloma Foundation with the help of Dr. Brian Durie.

Durie, originally from Scotland, is the director of the myeloma clinic at Cedar Sinai Comprehensive Cancer Center. He first worked with myeloma patients at the Mayo Clinic at the University of Minnesota. He had a particular interest in the potential for storing information in computer form to speed up the diagnosis and therapy of myeloma.

This in turn launched the Myeloma Staging System, which is a system that diagnoses the stage of the disease and assesses the outcome of the treatments in each stage.

The goal of the International Myeloma Foundation is to provide education, treatment and support for those affected by the disease. There are treatment options available, such as drug treatments, autologous transplants, radiation therapy and chemotherapy. The first thing that must be done is to treat the cancer and then it is necessary to treat the disease in the bones.

"The forms of treatment we have are not outright cures of the disease," said Durie. "But they do a good job of controlling the remission for several years. The results are better now than they have been in the past." Some new forms of tretament that are being looked into are stem cell transplants, gene therapy and the use of the virus in a type of antibiotic.

The International Myeloma Foundation is reaching out as awareness continues to spread. "We're reaching out to the doctors and the patients in the trenches," said Susie Novis. "Our members are pro-active, developing prevention programs and helping others make informed treatment choices."

The International Myeloma Foundation gives grants to provide better treatment and fund research. Their services are free and they are here to help. The hotline number is 1-800-452-2873 and they can be found on-line at www.myeloma.org.

Susie Novis added, "We just want people to know that there is help and hope."

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