Researchers recently reported updated sur­viv­al rates for multiple mye­lo­ma patients in the United States.  The results show that sur­viv­al has im­proved steadily – and markedly – from 1998 to 2009.

The average newly diagnosed myeloma patient 15 years ago, for exam­ple, was about one-third as likely as someone without myeloma to live another five years.

By the end of the 2000s, in contrast, that same myeloma patient would be 45 percent as likely as someone without myeloma to live another five years.

Ten-year myeloma sur­viv­al rates also increased markedly.  However, the average …

Over the last year or two, I have seen an increasing number of patients with multiple myeloma who are deeply worried that they have “failed” treatment because they are not in “complete response” (CR).  This phe­nom­e­non is gaining further steam with recent interest in “minimal re­sid­ual disease” (MRD).

In fact, with numerous educational programs, daily emails, and ubiqui­tous lectures touting a new regimen with even higher complete re­sponse rates, I am now almost as worried as them. Of course, the cause of my worry is not that patients have not achieved the …

German researchers recently developed a new system that calculates the risk level of multiple myeloma patients based on patient’s overall health status and other diseases a patient has in addition to myeloma.

Their system, called the Freiburg Comorbidity Index, calculates a patient’s risk level by determining the presence of known risk factors, such as poor overall health and kidney or lung disease.

The researchers found that this index can be used independently to predict progression-free survival and overall survival in myeloma patients.

More importantly, they found that when the Freiburg Comorbidity Index …

French researchers recently determined that the chromosomal abnor­mal­i­ties t(4;14) and del(13) are less common in older newly diagnosed myeloma pa­tients than in younger patients.

In contrast, the del(17p) abnormality was found to occur with a similar frequency across myeloma patients of all ages.

The researchers also found that the t(4;14) and del(17p) abnormalities have the same prognostic value in older patients as in younger patients.

Specifically, older patients with t(4;14) and del(17p) had shorter pro­gres­sion-free and overall survival com­pared to patients without those chro­mo­som­al abnormalities.

The del(13) abnormality, on the other hand, …

Results from a recent retrospective study indicate that chromosomal ab­nor­mal­ities may be useful for predicting which smoldering myeloma patients have a higher risk of progressing to active, or symptomatic, multiple myeloma.

Specifically, researchers from the Mayo Clinic found that patients with a chromo­somal abnormality known as t(4;14) progressed to myeloma faster, and had shorter survival compared to patients with other chromo­somal abnormalities.

“This study shows that risk of progression from smoldering multiple myeloma to symptomatic multiple myeloma is affected by the underlying cytogenetic type of the disease, with t(4;14) having the highest …

“So, how much time are they giving you?” an old friend from college asked me with great concern in his voice.

We had lost touch for several years, and he had only recently learned of my ongoing battle with multiple myeloma.

Ah, the classic ‘how much time?’ question.

I replied. “My doctors have assured me, with a great deal of certainty, that I will have no more than (dramatic pause)... no more than twenty-four hours a day to live my life. Only twenty-four hours a day! Why me?”

“Oh, man, I’m so …

Earlier this week, I was talking with three other long-lived multiple myeloma survivors who are all in remission.  The fascinating part was that all four of us got there in different ways.

One had undergone a successful allogeneic (donor) stem cell transplant.  He hasn’t been on maintenance for years.

The second was just finishing the arduous, four-year Total Therapy treatment regimen at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).  He plans not to use maintenance therapy.

The third started treatment at Mayo Clinic for kidney failure, but then went on to …