This webinar discusses the importance of renal biopsy and serum free light chain assays for the diagnosis of plasma cell dyscrasia when bone marrow findings are inconclusive or when a plasma cell dyscrasia is not clinically suspected; describes the pivotal role of renal pathology for the diagnosis of plasma cell dyscrasia in patients with MGUS, especially in early cases and in those with unusual clinical manifestations; and delineate the findings in a renal biopsy that are diagnostic of plasma cell dyscrasia when clinical suspicion is based only on identification of altered serum free light chain kappa to lambda ratios used as screening tests in patients with renal dysfunction.

Dr. Guillermo A. Herrera
MD
Medical Director, Nephrocor
Bostwick Laboratories
Orlando, FL

This webinar describes the role of the serum free light chain assay in the prediction of early progression of plasma cell dyscrasias and in the diagnosis of patients with primary systemic amyloidosis, and discusses the clinical utility of the newly introduced Heavy/Light Chain measurement.

Dr. Morie Gertz

MD, MACP
Roland Seidler Jr Profession & Chair Department of Medicine
Mayo Distinguished Clinician
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN

This webinar illustrates the practical clinical utility of serum free light chain assays via several clinical cases. Unique attributes of the free light chain assays are discussed. The role of serum free light chains is explained in the context of newly diagnosed patients with monoclonal gammopathy (MG), management of patients undergoing therapy for MG, and management of patients with recurrent MG disorders.

Dr. Jeffrey Matous

MD
Colorado Blood Cancer Institute
Denver, CO

In this webinar the rationale for monitoring myeloma and related diseases is discussed and the prognostic implications of measuring the serum light chains in myeloma and related diseases is explained.

Dr. Rafael Fonseca

MD, Getz Family Professor of Cancer
Deputy Director, Mayo Clinic Cancer Center
Associate Director, Center for Individualized Medicine
Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Arizona

This webinar discusses the role of serum free light chains (FLC) assays in the screening of patients with acute kidney injury (AKI), the importance of achieving an early reduction in serum FLC concentrations in patients with myeloma kidney, the role of new chemotherapy agents in the management of patients with myeloma kidney, and the supportive strategies for the removal of free light chains in patients with myeloma kidney.

Dr. Colin Hutchison

MD, Nephrologist, Renal Institute of Birmingham, University of Birmingham and University Hospital Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

This webinar discusses the basis of the serum free light chain test, the available data on the utility of free light chain testing in the screening and diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathies, prognostication of monoclonal gammopathies, and assessing disease response.

Dr. Sagar Lonial

MD, Associate Professor, Hematology & Medical Oncology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA

This webinar provides general overview of the diagnostic value of serum free light chains assays, the importance of free light chain assays for prognosis, and their role in monitoring myeloma.

Dr. Frits van Rhee

MD, PhD, MRCP (UK), FRCPath
Director of Stem Cell Transplantation, St. Francis Hospital, Greenville, SC
Professor of Medicine, Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, AR

The evolving spectrum of kidney pathologies associated with plasma cell dyscrasias is discussed and the critical role of serum free light chain assays in the management of patients with low tumor burden and light chain kidney pathology is illustrated as a case-based study.

Dr. Maria Picken

MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine, Loyola University, Chicago, IL
President of Renal Pathology Society

Dr. Don Benson Jr
MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology, The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center

The utility of serum free light chain assays in the screening, diagnosis and monitoring of patients with plasma cell dyscrasias is demonstrated through three illustrative case studies

Dr. Howard Robin and Dr. Parameswaran Hari

In this program, Dr. Howard Robin and Dr. Parameswaran Hari discuss new strategies for screening and diagnosis of monoclonal plasma cell gammopathies. Several case studies are presented to demonstrate the clinical utility of serum free light chain assays in the management of monoclonal gammopathies and their effectiveness for screening, diagnosis and monitoring of relapse and response to therapy of patients with plasma cell disorders.

Dr. Sagar Lonial
Associate Professor, Winship Cancer Institute

Dr. Sagar Lonial, discusses the new guidelines from the IMWG for diagnostic workup of Multiple Myeloma.

OBJECTIVES: After viewing this webinar, the participant will be able to:

1. Define the new IMWG guidelines for diagnostic workup for Multiple Myeloma.

2. Discuss the role of testing in regards to assessing responses in Multiple Myeloma.

3. Discuss the role of serum free light chain testing in evaluating the risk of progression in asymptomatic Multiple Myeloma and MGUS.

Dr. Judith Finlay
Technical Director, The Binding Site Inc

In this 5 minute video podcast, Dr. Judith Finlay, Technical Director for The Binding Site Inc. gives a brief overview of the recently published IMWG Guidelines on the use of serum free light chain analysis in multiple myeloma and related disorders.

Dr. Amitabha Mazumder
Professor of Medicine and Attending Physician (Medical Oncology) in the Multiple Myeloma/Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program, St. Vincents

OBJECTIVES: After viewing this program, the participant will be able to:

1) Define the strengths and limitations of the Freelite® assay in the diagnosis and prognosis of myeloma.

2) Define the role of the Freelite® assay in monitoring the response to therapy in myeloma.

3) Analyze and compare the utility of Freelite® assay vs other standard methods of followup of myeloma

View Supporting Document

Dr Belinda Ng
Physician

Dr. Belinda Ng gives a perspective on the latest clinical information on Amyloidosis. Dr. Ng is the first physician formally trained in Amyloidosis and is a cardiologist trained at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL. She has performed significant clinical research on amyloidosis at Boston University Medical Center and has seen hundreds of amyloid patients during her career.

OBJECTIVES: After viewing this webinar, the participant will be able to:

1) Define amyloidosis and its physical and chemical properties

2) Recognize there are different types of amyloidoses with different prognoses and treatment options

3) Discuss the clinical features and know when to suspect amyloidosis

4) Diagnose amyloidosis

View Supporting Document

Dr.Shaji Kumar
Associate Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and the Mayo Medical School in the Division of Hematology in Rochester

Dr.Shaji Kumar will give a perspective on the latest clinical information on the use of serum free light chain estimation in plasma cell disorders.

OBJECTIVES: After viewing this webinar, the participant will be able to:

1. Understand the concept of serum free light chain estimation
    
2. Review the role of free light chain in the screening, diagnosis and prognostication of plasma cell disorders
    
3. Review the role of free light chain measurements for response assessment to treatment

View Supporting Document

Dr. Maurizio Zangari
Professor of Hematology and Oncology and the Director of Experimental Therapeutics at the University Of Utah School Of Medicine

OBJECTIVES: After attending this meeting, the participant will be able to:

1. Discuss evaluation and follow-up of patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering myeloma, and after progression to myeloma, the impact of these pre-existing conditions on outcome
    
2. List diagnostic criteria for multiple myeloma and characteristics at presentation that effect treatment decisions
    
3. Describe staging systems for multiple myeloma and AL amyloidosis
    
4. Understand the use of laboratory testing strategies to optimize therapeutic intervention

View Supporting Document

Donna E. Reece, M.D.
Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, ON CANADA

OBJECTIVES: After viewing this webinar, the participant will be able to:

1. Define the principle of the serum free light chain assay
    
2. Describe the benefits of the serum free light chain assay versus current serum and urine analyses
    
3. Identify the clinical applications and benefits of the serum free light chain assay in the management of monoclonal gammopathies
    
4. Discuss patient cases demonstrating the usefulness of the serum free light chain analysis in clinical investigation.

View Supporting Document

Robert A. Vescio, M.D.
Director, Multiple Myeloma and Bone Metastases Program, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center Los Angeles, CA

Gain a clinical perspective on diagnostic tests and therapeutic advances for multiple myeloma, monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) and amyloidosis.

OBJECTIVES: At the end of the program, participants will be able to:

1 . Describe the latest clinical laboratory tests, cytogenetics, and staging systems used in the management of patients with multiple myeloma.

2. Describe the pitfalls in diagnosing and managing patients with multiple myeloma, MGUS and amyloidosis.

 View Supporting Document

K.H. Van Hoeven
Medical Director. The Binding Site Inc

Dr. Karen van Hoeven, Medical Director, The Binding Site Inc, discusses the appropriate use of blood tests for free kappa and free lambda light chains (Freelite®) and how they are interpreted. These assays were integrated into the 2006 diagnostic algorithm for multiple myeloma by the International Myeloma Working Group. Their application for the diagnosis of paraproteinemic renal disease is discussed in depth in this webinar, as it was at the NKF 2007 workshop

View Supporting Document