[PattiM]

Plasma cell percentage in bone marrow biopsy results?

by PattiM on Sat Apr 21, 2018 12:47 pm

Hello,

I recently received my bone marrow biopsy results. Can anyone tell me how to find (or where on the report) the plasma cell percentage is listed?

Thanks in advance!

[Multibilly]

Re: Plasma cell percentage in bone marrow biopsy results?

by Multibilly on Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:16 pm

Unfortunately these reports and the associated nomenclature they use are not standardized.

I'd therefore suggest you first start at the end of the report and see if there is a summary section that highlights the report's major findings and list them here for comment. Otherwise, you will need to scan through the report and look for instances of "percentage" or "%" and figure out which of those percentage entries represents your bone marrow plasma cell percentage. Of course, you also could just ask your oncologist for help.

Lastly, note that you may also have these bone marrow plasma cell percentage figures reported as clonal plasma cell percentages or just total plasma cell percentages, so you should also try to distinguish between those two (clonal vs. total) figures, if possible. And the report can also list the plasma cell percentage in the aspirate and the bone marrow biopsy itself (which can be different figures). So, it might be helpful to discuss the report page-by-page with your oncologist and highlight all of the things that he / she thinks are important.