Q. What is multiple myeloma?
Doctor Answer is medically reviewed by SecondMedic medical review team.
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects cells called plasma cells. Plasma cells are a type of white blood cell that make antibodies to fight infection and disease. In multiple myeloma, malignant (cancerous) plasma cells accumulate in the bone marrow, crowding out healthy blood cells and causing various symptoms such as extreme fatigue, weakness, anemia, frequent infections, bone pain or fractures due to weakened bones caused by the production of abnormal proteins from the malignant plasma cells.
In most cases it is not known what causes multiple myeloma but risk factors are believed to include age (over 65), family history and exposure to certain environmental hazards such as radiation or toxic chemicals. It is estimated that about 3 percent of people will develop this disease over their lifetime with men being slightly more at risk than women. The treatment for multiple myeloma includes chemotherapy drugs which target abnormal proteins from malignant plasma cells; stem cell transplantation; monoclonal antibodies which can target specific molecules on cancerous cells; immunotherapy treatments; and radiotherapy either alone or in combination with other treatments depending on the stage of progression at diagnosis.
Currently there is no cure for multiple myeloma and survival rates depend upon how quickly it was diagnosed, how well one responds to treatments and many other factors including age. With recent advances in medical science providing new alternative therapies more patients have been put into remission though regular check-ups are essential even if they appear symptom free following treatment as relapse can occur years later after some initial success against the disease was achieved.