DR. JUSTIN C.K. DAVIS, M.D.: Hi. My name is Dr. Justin Davis, and today I would like to tell you about something known as plasma cell neoplasm or more commonly referred to as multiple myeloma. What does this mean? Well, plasma cells are part of your immune cells that are found inside of the bone marrow, and a specific kind are called the myeloma cells. When these cells become cancerous or something in them changes and they grow out of proportion to what they normally should, then we say that you have multiple myeloma. The reason that we call it multiple myeloma is because often multiple areas within the body inside of the bone marrow may develop this problem and that is where we get the term multiple in multiple myeloma. Multiple myeloma is not very common and usually when it does occur it happens in elderly people, usually older than 65 years old although it does not have to happen in elderly people. The symptoms, while the symptoms really depend upon how advanced the disease is and where it is located, common symptoms may include problems with the bone marrow production which can affect the immune system and can also make you anemic, because maybe you are not producing enough blood cells anymore. It also may affect your kidney and cause problems with kidney function. Some of the specific symptoms depend upon which part of those bodies are affected. So, it may be as simple as some fatigue or some constant bone pain you may become anemic; you may have a loss of bone or even have unexplained fracture, or perhaps you have unexplained fevers and chills and night sweats. What do we do to treat myeloma? Well, multiple myeloma is treated depending upon the severity of it. Sometimes when it is first diagnosed, if it is not too severe, there may actually be no treatment at all. We may simply monitor the progress of it and not treat it until the symptoms become more severe or it spreads more throughout the body. Sometimes, however, when we do treat it, we may use methods such as chemotherapy, radiation and sometimes a stem cell transplant is used when we take any good cells that are left in the bone marrow, and we try to preserve those and then get rid of the rest of the bad cells. We later repopulate your body with the good cells. This is not as easy as it sounds, but when it is successful it can be a great cure. Many people, however, are never completely cured from having multiple myeloma and may have a mild form of it throughout their lives. What can you do to prevent this? We do not really know what causes multiple myeloma, so there is no real prevention that anyone can do. Certainly having a healthy lifestyle is always important. Maintaining your immune system through exercise, good diet, perhaps dietary supplements is very important. And avoiding known carcinogens like cigarette smoke, excessive alcohol consumption or other toxic substances is also important. Remember, if you are having symptoms that could be multiple myeloma, there are certainly a number of different diseases that could cause this. So it is important to be checked up by your doctor if you feel that you have unexplained symptoms of fatigue, weight loss, bone pain, or anything else that just does not seem normal.
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