Circulating Tumour Protein Quantification From Capillary Blood for Patient Selfsampling and Safe Remote Monitoring of Multiple Myeloma During COVID-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought severe challenges for myeloma patients. Myeloma patients are considered ultra-high risk for COVID-19 and fall into the strictest group for shielding. When on treatment, but also during times of active surveillance, patients have to regularly and frequently leave shielding and visit the hospital for blood tests to monitor their disese. This is specifically for quantification of circulating tumour protein biomarker tests for paraprotein (PP) and/or serum free light chains (sFLCs) by specialised biochemistry units.

This research aims to evaluate the potential use of an at-home patient administered technique to sample blood. The purpose of the blood sampling technique is to monitor your disease status. We want to test if it is possible to monitor a patient's disease status using this alternative blood collection method when compared to monitoring disease status using the traditional blood collection methods (venous blood sampling).

The new VAMS method is not intended to be used interchangeably or will not replace the current method. This study is to evaluate an alternative sample type that may be used to improve the patient pathway, especially during these uncertain times.