Dear IMF Member,

The International Myeloma Foundation (IMF) is proud to present The Comprehensive Guide to Banff: Understanding the VIIIth International Myeloma Workshop.

The International Myeloma Workshop is a bi-annual medical meeting dedicated exclusively to multiple myeloma. The Workshop is an opportunity for leading myeloma experts to come together and exchange information regarding the latest developments in the treatment, management and prevention of myeloma.

The IMF recognizes that, while the meeting is intended primarily for clinicians and researchers, this information is of great interest to everyone within the myeloma community. As always, we are working hard to ensure that you, our valued members, are kept abreast of any and all new information.

The Comprehensive Guide to Banff provides concise summaries of all the major presentations made at the VIIIth International Myeloma Workshop. For the reader's convenience, the material has been organized to cover the basic scientific material, followed by first conventional then more experimental approaches to treatment.

The Comprehensive Guide to Banff has been made possible, in large part, thanks to the time and talent of the myeloma experts who each agreed to author a summary paper detailing the workshop session in which they were involved. While each paper has been edited for clarity and consistency, we have strived to maintain the individual "voice" and writing style of each author. As a result, The Comprehensive Guide to Banff is meant to read as a collection of individual summary papers.

We encourage you to share The Comprehensive Guide to Banff with your treating physician so that you may both benefit from the many exciting developments that emerged from the latest International Myeloma Workshop.

In the coming months, many of these topics will be covered in greater depth in the IMF newsletter, Myeloma Today. We will explore the implications for future research and new treatment strategies. We will address topics such as what causes myeloma, new approaches to classification and prognostic assessment, and results with new therapies.

If you have specific questions about the material covered
in The Comprehensive Guide to Banff, please contact the
IMF and answers will be sought and provided. Any generic follow up issues wll be posted on the IMF website at www.myeloma.org.

As always, we thank you for your support of the myeloma community and of the International Myeloma Foundation.

Sincerely,
Susie Novis
President