[cazzamac]

Skin cancer: sign of active multiple myeloma?

by cazzamac on Mon May 29, 2017 1:07 am

I have high-risk smoldering multiple. Recently I had a skin check and a basal cell carcinoma was found on a leg.

My question is: Could the skin cancer be related to my diagnosis, or is it coincidental? Is it perhaps a forerunner to what is coming soon?

Thanks all,
Carol.

[Multibilly]

Re: Skin cancer: sign of active multiple myeloma?

by Multibilly on Mon May 29, 2017 7:48 am

Hi Cazzamac,

I'm not sure that skin cancer is necessarily an indication of "things to come" (by which I assume you mean developing symptomatic multiple myeloma). But it is fairly well known that immunocompromised patients are more likely to develop skin cancer. I also don't believe that smoldering myeloma patients would be an exception to this observation since we are also immunocompromised. But I've never heard that the development of skin cancer is an additional sign that a smoldering patient would necessarily progress to symptomatic multiple myeloma. See these articles:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26872804

https://www.cancer.org/cancer/melanoma-skin-cancer/causes-risks-prevention/risk-factors.html

[Little Monkey]

Re: Skin cancer: sign of active multiple myeloma?

by Little Monkey on Mon May 29, 2017 6:55 pm

My father had skin cancer about nine months before being diagnosed with a solitary plasmacytoma in the vertebrae.

[dchrzano]

Re: Skin cancer: sign of active multiple myeloma?

by dchrzano on Mon May 29, 2017 9:42 pm

My mother has had a lesion on her nose for 2 years that wouldn't go away. The oncologist said it looked like skin cancer, but we haven't had it confirmed by a dermatologist. We've been so focused on this cancer we haven't had the chance.