Survival Of Nonsecretory Multiple Myeloma Patients Improves Over Last Decade

BY MAIKE HAEHLE from The Myeloma Beacon Results of a recent retrospective study conducted at the Mayo Clinic in­di­cate that the survival of patients with non­se­cre­tory multiple myeloma has improved over the last decade. Nonse­cre­tory multiple myeloma is a rare form of myeloma in which a patient’s disease cannot be diagnosed or tracked by the presence of monoclonal protein in the blood or urine.  This is not the case for most myeloma patients, who have “se­cre­tory” disease which can be tracked using lab results such as a patient’s “M-spike” or free light chain levels. The authors of the new study found that, among multiple myeloma patients diagnosed between 1973 and 2001, the median overall survival was sim­i­lar for patients with non­se­cre­tory myeloma (3.6 years) and se­cre­tory mye­loma (3.5 years). Overall survival improved in both se­cre­tory and non­se­cre­tory myeloma patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2012 compared to the earlier period. However, the improvement in survival was greater in patients with non­se­cre­tory multiple myeloma. The median overall survival for non­se­cre­tory patients diagnosed between 2001 and 2012 was 8.3 years compared to 5.4 years for se­cre­tory patients diagnosed in the same time period. The researchers note that the improvement in survival in the later period occurred during the time when the newer, “novel” therapies for multiple myeloma began to see widespread use.  It is not clear, however, why the introduction of these newer therapies had a greater impact on the survival of non­se­cre­tory myeloma patients than se­cre­tory patients. For more information about the study, click here.