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.

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

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

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. Howard Robin
Pathologist
Medical Director of Continuing Education, Sharp Healthcare

Dr. Parameswaran Hari
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant Program, Division of Neoplastic Diseases and Related Disorders
Associate Scientific Director, Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR), Medical College of Wisconsin

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

Dr. Judith Finlay
Technical Director, The Binding Site Inc.

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

Dr. Sagar Lonial
Associate Professor, Winship Cancer Institute

Dr. Amitabha Mazumder discusses the use of free light chain analysis in the diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of multiple myeloma focusing on the Pathologist's and Clinical Chemist's point of view. He also discusses the International Myeloma Working Group guidelines for serum free light chain analysis.

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

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.

Dr. Belinda Ng
Physician

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

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. Maurizio Zangari gives a clinical perspective on the use and value of the serum free light chain assay.

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

Dr. Donna E. Reece gives a clinical perspective of serum free light chain analysis.

Dr. Donna E. Reece
Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto, ON Canada

Dr. Robert A. Vescio gives a clinical perspective on diagnostic tests and therapeutic advances for multiple myeloma, monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) and amyloidosis.

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

Dr. Karen van Hoeven 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.

Dr. Karen van Hoeven
Medical Director, The Binding Site Inc.