Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells found in bone marrow. The cancerous cells multiply so much that they crowd out normal healthy blood cells and weaken the bones. Once multiple myeloma is diagnosed, the cancer is then staged, which...
The American Cancer Society estimates that 20,580 new cases of multiple myeloma were diagnosed in 2009--about 11,680 in males and 8,900 in females--and that 10,580 Americans died from the disease. Two systems are used to classify this cancer in...
The National Cancer Institute describes multiple myeloma as a cancer that originates in a type of blood cell called a plasma cell. Plasma cells circulate throughout the body and produce antibodies that help rid the body of infections. The severity...
The prognosis for multiple myeloma varies widely, with survival ranging from less than one year in people with aggressive disease to more than 10 years in those with slowly progressing cancer. The American Cancer Society reports that 35 percent of...
One of the standard treatments for stage 1 multiple myeloma is chemotherapy. Chemotherapy works by administering medications that poison and kill cancer cells--sometimes by damaging their DNA and sometimes by other mechanisms. One agent that can...
Myeloma bone disease, also called multiple myeloma, is a disease that occurs when the body makes too many plasma cells. Plasma cells are a type of white blood cell that develops in the bone marrow; when there is a proliferation of these cells,...
Multiple myeloma---cancer that arises in the plasma cells of the bone marrow---is a relatively rare malignancy. Representing 1 percent of cancers in Caucasians and 2 percent in African-Americans, it strikes more than 20,000 individuals in the...
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells--white blood cells that are located in the bone marrow. The term multiple myeloma is used because the cancer occurs at more than one site in the bones. There are several variants of multiple...
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of plasma cells involving primarily the bone marrow, which releases a distinctive protein into the blood used for diagnosis. The disease usually occurs in older adults, with approximately 16,000 new cases diagnosed...
The American Cancer Society defines multiple myeloma as cancer that starts in plasma cells. Plasma cells are found in bone marrow and also have a role in the body's immune system. When cancer forms in the plasma cells, a tumor forms, typically in...
According to the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons (AAOS), multiple myeloma is the most common primary bone cancer, which occurs in four out of every 100,000 people in the United States each year. No known risk factors are inherited, but...
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that plays an important role in the immune system. Normally, plasma cells help fight infection. They collect in the bone marrow,--the spongy, soft center of the...
Your bone marrow contains plasma cells. These cells are white blood cells that produce antibodies to help you fight disease. For reasons not yet understood, these cells can become cancerous and multiply out of control. When this happens you can...
