Enhancing the therapeutic index of radiation in multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a systemic malignancy that remains incurable with current therapy. Myeloma is highly radiosensitive, and radiation-based therapies have the potential to provide significant clinical benefit. Effective deployment of radiotherapy as a systemic modality in myeloma depends on maximizing its therapeutic index by efficiently and accurately delivering the radiation to sites of myeloma cell growth and increasing the radiosensitivity of myeloma cells relative to normal tissues. In this review, we discuss various strategies that are currently under investigation to enhance clinical benefit of radiotherapy in multiple myeloma.

Section editor:John Tisdale – National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA