Prognosis of multiple myeloma has improved since 2000

For patients with multiple myeloma (MM), there has been an improvement in prognosis since 2000, but mortality still remains elevated, according to a study published online April 6 in BMC Cancer.

Christine Eisfeld, M.D., from the Cancer Registry of North Rhine-Westphalia in Bochum, Germany, and colleagues examined time trends in myeloma-specific survival at the population level over consecutive time periods from 2000 to 2019 using data from the Cancer Registry of North Rhine-Westphalia. Age-standardized and age group-specific relative survival (RS) was estimated, and conditional RS was estimated for patients who already survived one to five years after diagnosis.

The time trend analysis included 3,336 MM cases. The researchers found that age-standardized five-year RS increased from 37 to 62 percent over two decades. From 2000-2004 to 2015-2019, there was an improvement in age-specific survival from 41 to 69 percent for those aged 15 to 69 years and from 23 to 47 percent for those aged 70 to 79 years. Compared with unconditional five-year RS at diagnosis, there was a slight improvement in conditional five-year RS of patients who survived five years after diagnosis. Compared with the general population, MM patients were two times more likely to die from nonmyeloma malignancies and from cardiovascular diseases (standardized mortality ratios, 1.97 and 2.01, respectively).

"Cancer-specific survival in MM has substantially improved over two decades, following the widespread use of new therapies," the authors write. "With improving prognosis, clinicians should pay attention to second primary malignancies and cardiovascular risks."

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