The Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy is one of the largest centers in the world for research and clinical care related to multiple myeloma and related disorders.  It is committed to accelerating curative therapies. With a team of leading scientists and clinicians, the Myeloma Institute translates advances in the laboratory to breakthrough clinical treatments.

Founded in 1989 by Dr. Bart Barlogie, the myeloma program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has seen more than 10,000 patients from every state in the United States and more than 50 foreign countries (click here for map) and has performed more than 9,000 peripheral blood stem cell transplants. Dr. Barlogie and his colleagues have fundamentally changed the course of the disease through novel diagnostic procedures and therapeutic interventions. The quality of our innovative clinical and basic science research is known nationally and internationally.

MIRT is the only facility in the world that routinely offers Gene Array Analysis for newly referred patients and utilizes this information for patient management and planning of therapy.

The Myeloma Institute was the first to:

• use tandem bone marrow/peripheral blood stem cell transplants
• perform transplants on an outpatient basis
• safely transplant patients age 70 and above
• transplant patients with renal disease
• introduce thalidomide as anti-angiogenesis therapy  
• and many more

The hallmark of the Myeloma Institute is a program of well-designed clinical trials that challenge the traditional body of thought on disease treatment in order to improve outcomes.  Only large research centers have the necessary resources to be able to offer clinical trials and thereby enable patients to benefit from innovative, cutting-edge care. The Myeloma Institute is unique in that it has longer follow-up on more patients than other facilities.  This provides the large amount of statistically valid data critical for developing curative therapies.

The Myeloma Institute's proactive approach has yielded many significant therapeutic advances in multiple myeloma:

• Superiority of Tandem Autologous Transplantation
• Total Therapy with Tandem Transplants for Newly Diagnosed Patients
• Graft Versus Myeloma Effect
• Advanced Age Does Not Preclude Effectiveness of Transplantation 
• Activity of Thalidomide Benefits Patients with Refractory Multiple Myeloma
• Unique Role of Cytogenetics in the Prognosis of Patients with Myeloma 
• Identification of Nonrandom Translocations in Multiple Myeloma
• Thalidomide and Hematopoietic-Cell Transplantation for Multiple Myeloma 
• Results of high-dose therapy for 1000 patients with Multiple Myeloma: durable complete remissions and superior survival in the absence of chromosome 13 abnormalities
• Total therapy 2 without thalidomide: comparison with total therapy 1: role of intensified induction and post-transplant consolidation therapies
• Cytogenetic abnormalities in multiple myeloma: poor prognosis linked to concomitant detection in random and focal lesion bone marrow samples and associated with high-risk gene expression profile
• Gene expression profiling of plasma cells at myeloma relapse from tandem transplantation trial Total Therapy 2 predicts subsequent survival
• The molecular characterization and clinical management of multiple myeloma in the post-genome era
• Superior results of Total Therapy 3 (2003-33) in gene expression profiling-defined low-risk multiple myeloma confirmed in subsequent trial 2006-66 with bortezomib, lenalidomide and dexamethasone (VRD) maintenance
• Advances in the understanding of myeloma bone disease and tumour growth
• High-risk myeloma is associated with global elevation of miRNAs and overexpression of EIF2C2/AGO2

Our Academic Home

The Myeloma Institute is a Chancellor's Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). It is housed in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute. The UAMS Campus includes a 350-bed teaching hospital; the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute; the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute; the Harvey and Bernice Jones Eye Institute; the Outpatient Center; the Donald W. Reynolds Center on Aging; and a host of related clinical services. UAMS physicians are faculty members of the University’s College of Medicine. Many are active in basic and clinical research. They are also active in teaching medical students, residents and fellows (physicians in training).