[hopeful27]

Abnormal free kappa light chains - sign of relapse?

by hopeful27 on Thu Jan 22, 2015 10:13 pm

Hello all,

I am seeking advice if this is a sign of relapse.

My mom's immunofixation results two weeks ago showed no M spike and no trace of anything. Today I picked up her results of another 24 hour urine collection that they had run the same test on. This time it showed no M spike but on F3 it said "Abnormal free kappa light chains are present."

For the past nine months on RVD her test results have showed either nothing or a faint kappa light chain may be present on her results. I have not seen this response before. Does this appear as though her myeloma is becoming active again?

Her doctor said that the cancer never went away fully and that signs of it might come and go so not be alarmed right away if something shows up in the future. Well this showed up and I am worried. Her kappa and lambda numbers are all normal. And her creatinine isn't any higher than normal.

Any advice?

[Ron Harvot]

Re: Abnormal free kappa light chains - sign of relapse?

by Ron Harvot on Fri Jan 23, 2015 2:46 pm

I go through the same thing. The difference is that I have a serum free light chain (FLC) test run every 12 weeks along with the SPEP and immunofixation (IFE). I would not stress out about it. There can be variations from test to test. If she starts getting a true M spike, I would not worry about it. Given the fact that she has no M-spike, I am somewhat surprised that the sFLC is not done on a regular basis. That test is more sensitive than the SPEP or immunofixation and will spot changes before they show up on the other tests.

Right now it appears she is doing great.

Ron