Group Raises Awareness About a Little-Known Cancer

Latosha Hoskins had never heard of multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that disproportionately affects Black men and women, until her father was diagnosed with the disease in 2022.

Surprised and a bit scared, she reached out to friends and family members to learn more – but most of them had never heard of multiple myeloma either.

Now Hoskins, her father Ivory K. Haywood and many others are taking positive steps to change that. Hoskins founded Multiple Reasons, an organization that creates awareness about multiple myeloma, raises money for research and provides needed support to patients and their families.

It has one central purpose, Hoskins said: “So that people with multiple myeloma cancer and their families can have the opportunity to live.”

The group recently completed the Multiple Reasons Cancer Walk and Festival, which drew 150 people and provided helpful, uplifting information, as well as food and fun activities like rock climbing. The event, which was held in Wimauma, raised $2,500 for multiple myeloma research at Moffitt Cancer Center. Speakers included Moffitt scientists Brandon Blue, MD, and B. Lee Green, PhD.

“There’s not enough awareness in the Black and brown community about it,” Hoskins said. “We advocate for awareness so that people can detect it early.”

Every second Thursday, Multiple Reasons hosts an online support group, drawing more than a dozen people at a time. 

Multiple myeloma, a cancer that originates in plasma cells located in the bone marrow, has no cure. Unlike many other cancers, multiple myeloma does not have telltale symptoms that make it easy to identify. People often are not aware they have multiple myeloma until it reaches an advanced stage, leading to bone density loss, kidney failure and chronic pain.

Multiple Reasons encourages people to learn more about the PROMISE study, which provides free screenings for Black people over 30 or for anyone with a close family member who has multiple myeloma or one of its precursor conditions.

Moffitt is a nationwide leader in treating people with multiple myeloma and works to reach people who don’t have the cancer yet but are at high risk. The cancer center has the largest multiple myeloma program in Florida. The Pentecost Family Myeloma Research Center was created in 2021 with a transformational gift from Mark and Cindy Pentecost.

Moffitt also recently developed the first individualized predictive model for multiple myeloma, in cooperation with the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and other groups. It is designed to provide tailored predictions of how individual patients respond to different therapies.