Bone marrow biopsies are the gold standard for diagnosing and monitoring the progression of multiple myeloma, but these procedures are far too invasive to perform at every patient visit. Scientists from the Dana-Farber Cancer ...
Apr 27, 2018
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Although people with multiple myeloma usually respond well to treatment, the blood cancer generally keeps coming back. Following genetic changes in how the disease evolves over time will help to understand the disease and, ...
Dec 10, 2017
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Doctors have many drugs available to treat multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer. However, there is no way to predict, by genetic markers or other means, how a patient will respond to a particular drug. This can lead to ...
Nov 20, 2017
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Doctors are reporting unprecedented success from a new cell and gene therapy for multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that's on the rise. Although it's early and the study is small—35 people—every patient responded and all ...
Jun 5, 2017
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A compound identified by Weill Cornell Medicine scientists inhibits the growth of a rare blood cancer found in people with HIV-AIDS. Their research, published May 15 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, also demonstrates ...
May 17, 2017
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Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, which are white blood cells produced in bone marrow that churn out antibodies to help fight infection. When plasma cells become cancerous, they produce abnormal proteins, ...
Apr 4, 2017
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New research shows that excess weight increases the risk that a benign blood disorder will progress into multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood.
Nov 18, 2016
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Yale Cancer Center researchers have identified what causes a third of all myelomas, a type of cancer affecting plasma cells. The findings, published Feb. 10 in the New England Journal of Medicine, could fundamentally change ...
Feb 11, 2016
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A multiple myeloma patient whose cancer had stopped responding after nine different treatment regimens experienced a complete remission after receiving an investigational personalized cellular therapy known as CTL019 developed ...
Sep 9, 2015
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July 20, 2015. In recent years, immunotherapy has emerged as a promising treatment for certain cancers. Now this strategy, which uses patients' own immune cells, genetically engineered to target tumors, has shown significant ...
Jul 20, 2015
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Multiple myeloma (from Greek myelo-, bone marrow), also known as plasma cell myeloma or Kahler's disease (after Otto Kahler), is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell normally responsible for the production of antibodies. Collections of abnormal cells accumulate in bones, where they cause bone lesions (abnormal areas of tissue), and in the bone marrow where they interfere with the production of normal blood cells. Most cases of myeloma also feature the production of a paraprotein, an abnormal antibody that can cause kidney problems and interferes with the production of normal antibodies leading to immunodeficiency. Hypercalcemia (high calcium levels) is often encountered.
Myeloma is diagnosed with blood tests (protein electrophoresis, peripheral blood smear), microscopic examination of the bone marrow (bone marrow biopsy), and radiographs of commonly involved bones. Myeloma is generally thought to be incurable, but remissions may be induced with steroids, chemotherapy, thalidomide and stem cell transplants. Newer drugs, such as lenalidomide and bortezomib, are often used in more advanced disease. Radiation therapy is sometimes used to treat bone lesions that are causing symptoms.
The disease develops in 1–4 per 100,000 people per year. It is more common in men, and for yet unknown reasons is twice as common in African Americans as it is in white Americans. With conventional treatment, the prognosis is 3–4 years, which may be extended to 5–7 years or longer with advanced treatments. Multiple myeloma is the least common hematological malignancy (14%) and constitutes 1% of all cancers.
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