If you have multiple myeloma, should your relatives consider screening? In this Health Tree University video, we'll explain what your diagnosis could mean for your family. Are they at higher risk and should they be screened? If I have myeloma, what should my relatives know about myeloma screening? When it comes to any type of cancer, we group them into two categories, familial and sporadic. Sporadic means it comes out of nowhere. Familial I think most people identify with diseases like breast cancer where a mother may have it and an aunt has it and a daughter has it. Myeloma is extremely rare to be familial. We have identified a small number of cohorts where family members do have it. For the most part, if you have a first degree relative, that means brother or sister, mother or father, son or daughter, the likelihood of you developing myeloma is extremely low. So if in the general population it's one in a hundred thousand, for first degree relatives it's two in a hundred thousand, meaning it's not one needle in a haystack, it's two needles in a haystack. Therefore there is no recommendation for regular screening or testing of any first degree relatives of patients with multiple myeloma. I will throw out the one asterisk or caveat that if as you get older, if you have unexplained crab symptoms, unexplained calcium issues, unexplained kidney issues, unexplained anemia, unexplained bone issues and you have a first degree relative with myeloma, you should be evaluated. But again, statistically you're extremely unlikely to ever develop it if you have a first degree relative and no need for regular testing. Should patients consider joining a screening clinical study or is it not really necessary? There are a number of screening studies that are located in the US and abroad, studies like the PROMIS trial, studies like I-STOP-MM. Participation in screening clinical trials is always a wonderful thing because we all learn how to approach this disease. Right now there is no universal screening for myeloma. We screen for breast cancer, we screen for colon cancer. So the hope is that participating in trials such as these may one day help us figure out who we need to screen for preventative strategies. The subject of screening of first degree relatives is currently under research. Irene Gabriel is heading a project that's trying to determine if it's beneficial. The I-STOP multiple myeloma project where over 40,000 people in Iceland have been screened are trying to address that. So we don't have official recommendations. Currently I think the default is that screening is not currently indicated unless two first degree relatives have been identified. Ten percent of myeloma patients will give you a positive family history and so there's no question that there's a subset of myeloma patients where there is a familial incidence. But that's just at ten percent. For the remaining, it's not. On a personal note, my mother died of multiple myeloma and I have never had a serum protein electrophoresis done. Understanding your myeloma diagnosis is important, not just for you but for your family as well. Understanding whether your relatives are at increased risk and what screening options are available can help them take proactive steps to protect their health. If you found this video helpful, consider giving us a like and subscribing to Health Tree University. Our mission is to educate patients and their care partners and spread awareness about multiple myeloma. We'd like to thank our doctors, our sponsors, and of course our audience for making this video possible. See you next time on Health Tree University.
HealthTree • August 18, 2026
