An Irish patient with a specific type of blood cancer has become the first person in the world to take part in a new drug trial for patients who have responded poorly to standard treatment.

The patient has multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood which arises from a type of white blood cell that is made in the bone marrow. These are known as plasma cells and they normally produce antibodies to help fight infections.

However with this type of cancer, these plasma cells become cancerous and are then called myeloma cells. They can produce an excess of a single antibody, which stops the blood from working properly and is harmful to the body.

Around 250 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma every year in Ireland, while 170 die annually as a result of the disease.

The clinical trial centres on a new medicine called GMI-1271 and it is being run by Blood Cancer Network Ireland. The trial recently recruited its first patient in Dublin's Beaumont Hospital.

Blood Cancer Network Ireland is a cancer research and clinical trials initiative that is funded by the Irish Cancer Society and Science Foundation Ireland. It brings together experts in Dublin, Cork and Galway, all of whom have a shared interest in blood cancer.

The drug has already been tested in Ireland, the US and Australia on patients with another type of blood cancer, acute myeloid leukaemia. Early results are promising and Blood Cancer Network Ireland will now lead the way in assessing whether the drug is also effective in those with multiple myeloma.

With both acute myeloid leukaemia and multiple myeloma, some cancer cells can hide in the bone marrow, where they then stick to blood vessels. This makes chemotherapy less effective because even after it has killed the majority of cancer cells, the hidden cells survive and go on to multiply again. This causes the patient to relapse.

If this new drug is successful, it will delay or even prevent this relapse. It is being tested in conjunction with chemotherapy and it is hoped that the cancer cells will not be able to anchor themselves to the bone marrow. This would allow the chemotherapy to kill of the cancer cells in the patient.

The GMI-1271 trial for multiple myeloma will also open in University Hospital Galway, where Prof Michael O'Dwyer is leading the study. Prof O'Dwyer is also director of Blood Cancer Network Ireland.

He said that this new trial ‘highlights the huge strides' in cancer research which Blood Cancer Network Ireland has been a part of since its establishment last year.

"There are approximately 1,500 people in Ireland living with blood cancer. Blood cancers account for about 10% of cancer deaths and it is the relapsed drug-resistant cancer that is the cause of most deaths. The fact that this new trial provides hope for multiple myeloma patients is an exciting development that puts Blood Cancer Network Ireland at the forefront of blood cancer research on a global scale," Prof O'Dwyer commented.

The patient in Beaumont who is the first to take part in the trial is under the supervision of consultant haematologist, Dr John Quinn, who joined Blood Cancer Network Ireland earlier this year.

"We have been developing our clinical trial practice in haematology at Beaumont over the past five years, however this major investment by the Irish Cancer Society will open up even greater access to blood cancer clinical trials and the latest treatments for our patients, and also strengthen the network as whole," he noted.

For more information on Blood Cancer Network Ireland and blood cancers in general, click here