The treatment of multiple myeloma requires a team approach. Your doctor is the primary caregiver, but you will also need nurses, social workers and a dietitian. The goal of treatment is to relieve symptoms and delay or prevent relapse. You will also need to participate in regular follow-up care. Research plays an important role in improving the quality of care and survival rates for people with multiple myeloma. The newest treatments are less toxic, better tolerated and have higher survival rates than older therapies. The progress made in treating multiple myeloma is the result of years of basic, preclinical and clinical research that led to discoveries about how myeloma develops, grows and responds to therapy.
The first step in diagnosing multiple myeloma is finding out whether you have the condition. Doctors look for specific changes in your body that are signs of the disease. These include high levels of M protein in your blood, kidney (renal) problems, low levels of red blood cells, and damage to bones that can cause broken bones.
Your doctor will order tests to check your general health and to find out what type of multiple myeloma you have. The most common test is a complete blood count, which measures your hemoglobin and other types of red blood cells. The doctor may also order a urinalysis to check for M proteins in your urine. Your doctor will also take a sample of bone marrow to see how many plasma cells are abnormal and to determine your stage of multiple myeloma.
A bone marrow transplant is a treatment option for some people with multiple myeloma. To prepare for a bone marrow transplant, your doctors will give you medicines to suppress your immune system and help your body accept the new cells. Then they will collect blood stem cells from your body and put them into your veins through a procedure called a bone marrow transplant. The new stem cells will then grow into healthy plasma cells and replace the cancerous ones.
You will continue to receive the chemotherapy and other medicines that you received before the bone marrow transplant. Some of these medicines will be targeted therapies or immunotherapies. These are designed to keep the multiple myeloma from coming back.
Just like every person is different, so are survival statistics for multiple myeloma. These numbers only tell what happened to people who were similar to you in terms of their age, myeloma subtype and other factors. You and your doctor will be able to discuss the meaning of these statistics for you and answer any questions that you might have. This is why it is important to talk with your healthcare provider about your own personal situation.
