HEALTH - MULTIPLE MYELOMAPlasma cells help your body fight infection by producing proteins called antibodies. In multiple myeloma, plasma cells grow out of control in the bone marrow and form tumors in the areas of solid bone. The growth of these bone tumors makes it harder for the bone marrow to make healthy blood cells and platelets. Multiple myeloma mainly affects older adults. Past treatment with radiation therapy raises your risk for this type of cancer. The proliferation of plasma cells in MM may interfere with the normal production of blood cells, resulting in leukopenia, anemia, and thrombocytopenia. The cells may cause soft-tissue masses (plasmacytomas) or lytic lesions in the skeleton. Feared complications of MM are bone pain, hypercalcemia, renal failure, and spinal cord compression. The aberrant antibodies that are produced lead to impaired humoral immunity, and patients have a high prevalence of infection, especially with encapsulated organisms such as Pneumococcus. The overproduction of these antibodies may lead to hyperviscosity, amyloidosis, and renal failure.
Symptoms
Multiple myeloma causes anemia, which makes a person more likely to get infections and have abnormal bleeding.
As the cancer cells grow in the bone marrow, bone or back pain, most often in the ribs or back.
If the bones in the spine are affected, it can put pressure on the nerves, resulting in numbness or weakness of the arms or legs.
Other symptoms include:
Bleeding problems
Fatigue due to anemia
Fevers without any other cause
Shortness of breath due to anemia
Unexplained broken bones.
Treatment
There is no cure for multiple myeloma, however, there are ways to control it. Treatment includes medications, such as bortezomib and thalidomide, as well as stem cell transplants and standard cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Standard Treatment Chemotherapy is often used when treating multiple myeloma to kill off cancerous cells. When M protein levels stabilize, it is discontinued. However, if levels begin to increase again, your doctor may commence chemo another time. Powerful drugs such as steroids and thalidomide are also used to combat multiple myeloma but a newer drug called bortezomib, which blocks proteasomes and causes cancer cells to die, has been twice as effective as previous medicines, according to the Mayo Clinic. Another new drug, lenalidomide, works much like thalidomide but it is much more potent and has less side effects. Stem cell therapy for people with multiple myeloma is administered in conjunction with high doses of chemotherapy. Using stem cells from your healthy blood or bone marrow (or those from a donor), your doctor will attempt to replace the cancerous cells with healthy ones. Healthy stem cells are usually harvested after a three or four month regimen of drug therapy to kill off high levels of cancerous cells. You will then undergo the transplant soon after the harvest or at the time you relapse again.More Information
www.mayoclinic.com
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