[SandyC63]

Confusing lab results post transplant

by SandyC63 on Tue Feb 04, 2014 8:50 am

First, I just want to thank all who respond to this forum. I've find it so helpful.

100 days after an ASCT, my husband had the same m-spike as when he went in - it was 1.3. We did get a reduction in FLC. Overall, it was discouraging after all that effort. Our doctor is planning on just holding steady (no additional treatment) and retesting in another month to determine if we are stable, which sounds reasonable to us.

In the meantime, we received his bone marrow results. The are:

Final diagnosis: Bone marrow aspirate: Minimal residual evidence of plasma cell proliferative disorder (4-5% plasma cells).

Comment: CD138 and kappa stains are positive. Lambda stains are negative. Plasma cell phenotyping by plasma cell proliferation is pending. Cytogenetics and FISH will be cancelled because of a lack of morphological criteria for residual myeloma.

Can anyone help us to understand these results? Based on other posts, it looks like there are still some myeloma cells and kappa cells, but is this what we'd expect with the m-spike staying the same and relatively high compared to what others post? Before the transplant, the bone marrow was at 15%.

Thanks in advance,
Sandy

[Dr. Jason Valent]

Re: Confusing lab results post transplant

by Dr. Jason Valent on Tue Feb 04, 2014 10:35 am

The M-spike at 100 days is reasonably reliable when assessing overall disease burden. The bone marrow sometimes is not the best way to assess response as this is a somewhat small sample of what may be seen overall in the marrow.

It seems the response is stable.