In 2017, the D Jones Family Charitable Foundation contributed to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation (MMRF) in honor of friends of the family touched by this disease. MMRF was established in 1998 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and is the world’s number one private funder of multiple myeloma research. Since its inception, MMRF has raised over $330 million and directs nearly 90% of its total budget to research and related programming. The grant provided by the D Jones Family Charitable Foundation to MMRF specifically supports the MMRF CoMMpass Study℠.
“Crowd Sourcing” the Cure
The MMRF goal for the CoMMpass Study is to one day track every patient with multiple myeloma so that their treatment and results can be used to guide decisions for every new diagnosis. The foundation describes it as “crowd-sourcing” cancer treatment. At the start of the study, bone marrow samples are taken. Then, the patient is checked on every six months for eight years. CoMMpass studies a wide range of patients. This helps make sure that whoever a patient is, if they have multiple myeloma, there’s someone in CoMMpass who looks like them. According to MMRF, getting so many multiple myeloma patients together is already yielding powerful results. With CoMMpass, they can tell what treatment people took, for how long, and how well it worked. Read More
About MMRF
According to the MMRF website, multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects the plasma cells. It is the second most common blood cancer. Historically, there was little hope for patients, because multiple myeloma treatment options were incredibly limited. As recently as 10 years ago, MMRF says, the life expectancy of a myeloma patient was only three years. Today, that has more than tripled, thanks to the work of the MMRF in funding research that is extending the lives of patients while they work on a cure. The MMRF has contributed to the FDA approval of 10 new drugs for multiple myeloma in less than 12 years – a track record unparalleled in oncology. There are currently 27 new treatments being studied and over 60 clinical trials have been launched. Read More