Grampians Health's Haematology Lead, Doctor Swe Htet, has enrolled Grampians Health Ballarat into Myeloma and Related Diseases Registry and Myeloma 1000 project. The Myeloma 1000 project aims to establish a repository of samples for future patient assessment to better predict individuals at risk of developing multiple myeloma or a related disease, accelerated disease progression, and treatment response. 

Dr Htet has been part of clinical trials for seven years. "We want to get real-life data on myeloma treatment in Australia," he said. 

"We're hoping to contribute to the myeloma database in Australia and compare regional centre performance with metro centres," said Dr Htet. 

With this project, doctors and clinicians hope that long-term real-life clinical data with information from a large cohort of newly diagnosed myeloma patients, will enable correlative studies that will be highly valuable in predicting the onset of disease, and informing the best treatment strategies for myeloma and related diseases in future patients. 

The range of treatment options for myeloma has changed dramatically over the last decade, and a large number of second-generation and targeted therapies are under development.  

Although there have been improved outcomes, the average survival for patients diagnosed with myeloma is only four to five years with current therapy. As such, new approaches are needed to improve patient outcomes, and this database has the potential to help patients now and into the future.