
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.
This trial looked at plasma exchange to help treat kidney damage in people with myeloma.
People with myeloma often have high levels of proteins called immunoglobulins in their blood. These extra proteins can damage the kidneys, as they pass through from the blood into the urine.
Some myeloma patients have serious kidney failure when they are first diagnosed. When this trial was done, these patients often needed to have kidney dialysis for life.
Doctors wanted to find out whether a process called plasma exchange may help damaged kidneys to work again. Plasma exchange is a way of removing some of the extra proteins in the blood.
They hoped that lowering the levels of these proteins would stop damage to the kidneys, which would then be able to recover. So patients would be less likely to need dialysis.
The aim of this trial was to find out if plasma exchange, along with steroid and chemotherapy treatment, can help damaged kidneys to recover.
Please note: In order to join a trial you will need to discuss it with your doctor, unless otherwise specified.
Dr Gill Gaskin
Dr Judith Behrens
Bloodwise
Cancer Research UK
Experimental Cancer Medicine Centre (ECMC)
NIHR Clinical Research Network: Cancer
Renal Association
UK Myeloma Forum
This is Cancer Research UK trial number CRUK/03/004.
Freephone 0808 800 4040
Last year in the UK over 60,000 cancer patients enrolled on clinical trials aimed at improving cancer treatments and making them available to all.