Multiple myeloma is the second most common cancer of the blood.
Approximately 60,000 new patients are diagnosed every year in the US with this disease. Myeloma is responsible for taking the life of nearly 12,000 patients every year in this county. The median age at time of diagnosis is 63, however, over the last 15 years we have seen a trend toward a much younger population of patients for unclear reasons. Environmental factors and toxin exposure may play a role in the epidemiology of this cancer, but the exact causes are still uncertain. High dose chemotherapy and stem cell rescue (autologous stem cell transplant) remains one of the preferred treatment options for younger patients in good performance status. In the last few years there has also been a dramatic increase in the number and type of promising new agents developed for treating myeloma including drugs such as thalidomide, lenalidomide and bortezomib. Many of these new treatments have been developed based on an improved understanding of the biology of myeloma and how it grows and spreads within the body. This has allowed the development of agents that attack specific targets in the myeloma cells as compared to classic chemotherapy, which broadly kills many cell types. As more is understood about how myeloma develops, grows and becomes resistant to existing agents, even more progress will be made in developing new generations of treatments. In addition, there are a number of research studies and clinical trials underway to develop improvements in the diagnosis of myeloma, reducing bone disease and in improving supportive care and quality of life. While there is no cure currently for myeloma, the enormous number of potentially useful new agents raises great hope that progress will continue to be made and it may not be too far fetched to predict that one or more of these emerging therapies will help turn myeloma into a chronic manageable disease and ultimately will help lead to a cure for this disease.
