Treating Multiple Myeloma
Once cancer is found, staging tests are performed to find out if the cancer has spread and, if so, to what extent. While treatment is sometimes capable of slowing the progression of the multiple myeloma, complete remission is rare. Treatment is also important for the control of symptoms. Treatment depends on your symptoms and the stage of your cancer.
Treatments include:
Chemotherapy is the use of drugs to kill cancer cells. Chemotherapy may be given in many forms including: pill, injection, and via a catheter. The drugs enter the bloodstream and travel through the body killing mostly cancer cells, but also some healthy cells.
The most common initial chemotherapeutic agents are melphalan , prednisone , or a three drug combination called VAD. When young patients develop myeloma, some oncologists feel they should first receive the VAD chemotherapy followed by a bone marrow transplant, if they have had a good response to the initial VAD.
The two types of bone marrow transplant used include an autologous and allogeneic transplant.
Autologous transplant-is one where the patient’s bone marrow is stunned with very high doses of chemotherapy, and it recovers with infused stem cells.
Allogeneic transplant-is a more involved process requiring the donation of bone marrow cells from a donor (usually a first-degree relative). The bone marrow of the patient is stunned with very high doses of chemotherapy (and sometimes with low doses of radiation therapy) followed by the infusion of the donor’s cells into the blood of the patient. The stem cells then seek out the bone marrow and re-populate it.
Both techniques are potentially deadly and have significant side effects associated with them. However, these procedures (particularly the allogeneic transplant) are the only ones that have shown to result in a prolonged survival, or even a cure.
Immunomodulatory treatments help alter the way the myeloma cells live, and ultimately makes it difficult for them to survive, reproduce, and produce the proteins that cause secondary symptoms. Drugs used for this treatment include thalidomide , lenalidomide , arsenic trioxide , neovastat, and velcade .
Radiation therapy is the use of radiation to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors. Radiation is most often given to relieve bone pain, and by itself is not considered curative.
Surgery is done to remove a multiple myeloma tumor that causes pain or other debilitating symptoms, when radiation therapy is not considered feasible. Surgery is not curative.
Peripheral stem cell transplant involves giving patients immature, healthy blood cells to replace bone marrow cells that are destroyed during total body radiation and high-dose chemotherapy.
Lifestyle measures help reduce symptoms and maintain overall health:
- Stay as active as possible.
- Drink plenty of fluids to help avoid dehydration and kidney damage.
- Eat a balanced diet.
- Do not take high doses of vitamins.