The International Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Foundation (IWMF) Board of Trustees has reviewed and approved funding an additional $500,000 to renew Dr. Steve Treon’s legacy research project.
In previous research partially funded by the IWMF, Dr. Treon and his team discovered the highly recurring mutation in the MYD88 gene that occurs in more than 90% of WM patients and showed that mutated MYD88 promoted growth and proliferation of WM cells through the downstream signaling pathways BTK and IRAK1/IRAK4. These findings enabled the pivotal clinical trial that led to approval of the BTK inhibitor ibrutinib (Imbruvica) for the treatment of WM in the US, Europe, and Canada.
For more information about Dr. Steve Treon’s project “Targeting MYD88 in Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia” and to explore other critical WM research projects, please click here.
Since 1999, the IWMF has invested over $18,000,000 in WM research projects throughout the world. Thanks to this research, the WM community has better treatment options that can lead to deeper, longer lasting remissions with fewer side effects.