Treatment Outcomes

It is not unusual for myeloma patients to live 10 years or more. Outcomes are influenced by patient factors, such as stage of the disease, chromosome changes, age, and other medical problems. Patients should discuss individual potential outcomes with their doctors.

Click here to access myeloma survival statistics.

Measuring Treatment Response

Your doctor must monitor your response to treatment for myeloma. By measuring your progress, your doctor can see whether any changes to your therapy are needed.

Your doctor uses the following tests to measure your treatment response:

Bone imaging studies, such as x-ray studies, MRI and PET scans
Blood and urine tests to check blood cell counts, kidney function and myeloma-cell growth
Bone marrow aspiration and biopsy to observe the pattern and amount of myeloma cells in the marrow

Treatment response, as determined by these well-established methods, is often supplemented with measurements of minimal residual disease (MRD). A number of techniques can be used to identify MRD, including

Immunophenotyping by flow cytometry of a bone marrow aspirate. Immunophenotyping uses antibodies to look for specific proteins on the surface of cells that are unique to each cell type, allowing for identification or fingerprinting of those cells. It can help, for example, in determining whether plasma cells in the marrow are from left over myeloma, or if they are normal plasma cells.
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using allele-specific oligonucleotide probes (ASO-PCR), usually on bone marrow. This is a method to make many copies by PCR of the abnormal regions of plasma cells to be able to better detect even small amounts of remaining myeloma.
Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of either the bone marrow or blood.

Your doctor may use one of the following terms in the table below to describe your response based on your test results.

Term Used to Describe Response	Characteristics
Remission	No sign of disease. The terms “complete remission” (or “complete response”) and “partial remission” (or “partial response”) are sometimes used.
Complete response	No sign of M protein using standard tests Disappearance of any soft-tissue plasmacytomas Less than 5% plasma cells in bone marrow aspirates
Stringent complete response	No detectable disease by serum or urine immunofixation Normal kappa (k)/lambda (λ) light chain ratio No detectable myeloma on bone marrow flow cytometry
Very good partial response	A 90% or greater decrease in blood M protein Urine M protein level <100 mg in 24-hour urine collection
Partial response	50% or greater decrease of M protein in the blood 90% reduction in M protein in 24-hour urine collection 50% or greater reduction in the size of soft-tissue plasmacytoma (if present at diagnosis)
Minimal response	Reduction between 25% and 50% in M protein in the blood Reduction between 50% and 89% in M protein in 24-hour urine collection 50% or greater reduction in the size of soft-tissue plasmacytoma (if present at diagnosis)
Stable disease	Not meeting criteria for complete response, very good partial response, partial response, minimal response or progressive disease
Progressive disease	At least a 25% increase in M protein in the blood and urine Appearance of new lesions or 50% or greater increase in the size of previous lesions If associated with symptoms, usually indicates the need to start therapy or to change therapies if the patient is already receiving treatment

Treatment Outcomes

Measuring Treatment Response

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