[Ted Kan]

Re: How "rare" is multiple myeloma really?

by Ted Kan on Wed Feb 24, 2016 1:22 am

Tom,

I think I'm correct in that, In the U.S., the "official" definition of a rare cancer is fewer than 15 cases per 100,000 people per year. By that definition, myeloma is rare. What's interesting to me is that cancers such as ovarian are not usually described by people as rare, even though they have a significantly lower incidence than myeloma and are officially also rare.

I prefer to tell people it's an uncommon cancer even though "officially" it is rare. Just my peculiar preference. For some reason, myeloma hasn't gotten the publicity of cancers of the ovary, brain, etc. which may not be good. I don't know.

Ted

[gmarv]

Re: How "rare" is multiple myeloma really?

by gmarv on Wed Feb 24, 2016 5:07 pm

Another way to get a feel for how rare it is try shrinking the numbers. I looked at just my state (Arkansas). Population is 2.98 million. New cases of myeloma 290. That seems rare to me.