Hello,
My dad got diagnosed with multiple myeloma Wednesday of last week. Since then I have done a lot of reading, been to a few different doctors, and am confused with prognosis and stage. The doctors seem vague to me and dad doesn't seem to want to ask too many questions.
He's only 59, pretty healthy although a bit overweight. his calcium levels are normal, only ever slightly anaemic, renal activity is normal, however multiple lesions on ribs and spine (even though the MRI hasn't been explained to us properly either). One lesion is compressing the spinal cord, so radiation for 5 days has started as well as a combination of cyclophosphamide, Kyprolis (carfilzomib), and dexamethasone.
His bone pain was really bad in the back until they started him on dex alone and immediately no pain whatsoever. His chest still hurts but only when he coughs, etc.
They said he is stage 3 due to the bone lesions. However, all his peripheral blood results are in normal range other then low in eosinophils & basophils and slightly low haemoglobin.
Trying to understand the biopsy is difficult and not been explained either. Can anyone make sense of this part?
"Moderately hypercellular bone marrow aspirate with mildly reduced trilineage haematopoiesis. Plasma cells of mature appearance are increased at 41% (range from 19 to 64%)."
Thanks in advance.
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Christina21212 - Name: Christina
- Who do you know with myeloma?: Dad
- When were you/they diagnosed?: May 2017
- Age at diagnosis: 59
Re: "Plasma cells of mature appearance are increased"
Hi Christina,
I am sorry to hear about your Dad being recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The early goings after diagnosis can be quite a daunting time. With all the technical terminology employed in the medical field, it can be difficult to get a good handle on what is actually happening. However, if you remain diligent in searching out explanations, you’ll overcome most of the difficulties. This forum has a lot of great posts explaining how to interpret test results. I also found Wikipedia articles and biology textbooks to be most helpful.
Regarding your specific question on your dad's biopsy, I can offer some explanation. When your dad had his biopsy performed, the doctors took two samples:
1) An aspirate, which is a sample of of the fluid in a person’s bone marrow that was drawn up by suction, and
2) A core sample of bone marrow. The latter was not aspirated. It was removed intact.
Since the report says your Dad’s aspirate is hyper-cellular, this means that the number of cells per unit volume in your Dad’s marrow was larger than typically found.
Trilineage refers to the fact that blood cells fall into three broad categories: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Your Dad’s marrow seems to be “mildly” producing less of each of these.
Lastly, the percentage of marrow (excluding the fat cells) cells representing plasma cells in 41%. Plasma cells of a healthy individual are usually in the range of 1 to 3%.
I hope this helps.
Joe
I am sorry to hear about your Dad being recently diagnosed with multiple myeloma. The early goings after diagnosis can be quite a daunting time. With all the technical terminology employed in the medical field, it can be difficult to get a good handle on what is actually happening. However, if you remain diligent in searching out explanations, you’ll overcome most of the difficulties. This forum has a lot of great posts explaining how to interpret test results. I also found Wikipedia articles and biology textbooks to be most helpful.
Regarding your specific question on your dad's biopsy, I can offer some explanation. When your dad had his biopsy performed, the doctors took two samples:
1) An aspirate, which is a sample of of the fluid in a person’s bone marrow that was drawn up by suction, and
2) A core sample of bone marrow. The latter was not aspirated. It was removed intact.
Since the report says your Dad’s aspirate is hyper-cellular, this means that the number of cells per unit volume in your Dad’s marrow was larger than typically found.
Trilineage refers to the fact that blood cells fall into three broad categories: red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Your Dad’s marrow seems to be “mildly” producing less of each of these.
Lastly, the percentage of marrow (excluding the fat cells) cells representing plasma cells in 41%. Plasma cells of a healthy individual are usually in the range of 1 to 3%.
I hope this helps.
Joe
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Wobbles - Name: Joe
- Who do you know with myeloma?: myself
- When were you/they diagnosed?: June 2016
- Age at diagnosis: 67
Re: "Plasma cells of mature appearance are increased"
Sorry to hear about your dad's diagnosis. Joe did a good job explaining test results. I'm not a medical person, just a multiple myeloma patient, for 7 years now.
Try not to get hung up on the "stage". Multiple myeloma is a different kind of cancer, so the stage is not really an factor in how it's treated. All active myeloma is treated the same regardless of stage. My case I was never really "staged" as I was very sick when I was finally diagnosed and started treatment immediately (admitted to the hospital that day, given IV steroids). We were only told I had advanced myeloma. I hope he responds quickly to treatment.
Try not to get hung up on the "stage". Multiple myeloma is a different kind of cancer, so the stage is not really an factor in how it's treated. All active myeloma is treated the same regardless of stage. My case I was never really "staged" as I was very sick when I was finally diagnosed and started treatment immediately (admitted to the hospital that day, given IV steroids). We were only told I had advanced myeloma. I hope he responds quickly to treatment.
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lys2012 - Name: Alyssa
- When were you/they diagnosed?: 2010, Toronto, Canada
- Age at diagnosis: 32
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