Light chain mono­clonal gam­mop­athy of undetermined sig­nif­i­cance (MGUS) has a very low probability of progressing to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, accord­ing to the results of a new study by researchers in Germany.

The German researchers found that, with a median follow-up time of 11.5 years, none of the 75 people in their study who had light chain MGUS saw their MGUS progress to symp­tomatic multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, or a related disease.

In fact, in more than half of the 31 cases where the nec­es­sary laboratory results were avail­able, study par­tic­i­pants who initially met …

Good morning, myeloma world.

We hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start. We've been looking over the latest myeloma-related research since the last edition of Myeloma Morning, and it appears we have just a short list of new material to discuss today.

In fact, we will be focusing today on just two new research articles.

The first is from a team of U.S. researchers, most of whom are based at the Uni­versity of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS). The study looks at a novel way of …

Results from a recent study indicate that the two leading models for classifying smoldering myeloma patients based on their risk of disease progression disagree significantly more often than they agree.

The two models were developed independently by researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the Spanish 'PETHEMA' working group.

Given the results of their comparison, the authors of the current study argue that further studies are needed to define a more broadly applicable set of criteria to assess a smoldering myeloma patient’s risk of progression.

The current study did not assess which of …

Results from a recent retrospective study suggest that smoldering myeloma patients with a high percentage of plasma cells in the blood are more likely to progress to active myeloma within two years of diagnosis, as compared to patients with a lower percentage of plasma cells.

Patients with more than 5 billion plasma cells per liter of blood or more than 5 percent of their blood cells in the blood being plasma cells were defined as having a ‘high percentage’ of plasma cells in the blood.

“[Our results suggest that] if patients with …