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Multiple myeloma is the second-most common blood cancer, and the risk is higher among men, Black Americans and people with a family history of the disease. While multiple myeloma is not considered curable, advances in treatment may offer better prognoses.
Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi, a Mayo Clinic hematologist and oncologist, explains how new therapies and ongoing research are changing the outlook for people with the disease.
Journalists: Broadcast-quality video (1:10) is in the downloads at the end of this post. Please courtesy: "Mayo Clinic News Network." Read the script.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of blood cell called a plasma cell that builds up in bone marrow.
"When plasma cells multiply and crowd up the bone marrow, they can produce certain abnormal proteins," says Dr. Ailawadhi.
Damage caused by multiple myeloma can lead to anemia, weakened bones, frequent infections and kidney failure.
"Treatment for multiple myeloma has come a long way," Dr. Ailawadhi says. "While historically, there were traditional chemotherapies, now, the focus of treatment is targeted therapies, which are frequently engaging the body's own immune system to try and target the cancer in a way that is safer and has a more sustained effect on the disease."
This includes bone marrow transplantation, novel immunotherapy agents and chimeric antigen receptor-T cell therapy, also known as CAR-T cell therapy.
Dr. Ailawadhi says research is ongoing to better predict who may be at risk for multiple myeloma and to develop new treatments.
"We are able to see the field advancing rapidly and how major treatment advances are progressing to benefit patients," says Dr. Ailawadhi. "We expect that over the next five, seven, 10 years, we will see many, many more drugs, novel combinations and agents with newer mechanisms will be available to patients with this disease."
