Like myeloma patients, Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) patients have abnormal proteins in the blood as a result of defective plasma cells in the bone marrow…
Dear David- I have had squamous cell carcinoma (skin cancers) for the past 18 years. The number of outbreaks is cancer spots has taken a dramatic jump in the last year. Overall I’ve had over 15 Mohs surgeries, 5 in the last 5 months, a significant increase. My doctor feels there may be a correlation between the increase in the number of cancers and my diagnosis of MGUS last year.
Can Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (pre-MM) cause more cancers or can more squamous cell carcinomas cause an increase of MGUS to MM?
Thanks for any thoughts-
To answer your question “Can Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significancecause more cancers…” the answer is yes, according to the article linked and excerpted below, MM and pre-MM increase the incidence of several different types of cancer as well as for non-melanoma skin cancer (both basal cell and squamous cell). MGUS and MM both cause the patient to be immunocompromised. My guess is that if you are already prone to non-melanoma skin cancers then your Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance sped up the process.
As for your other question “can more squamous cell carcinomas cause an increase of MGUS to MM,” I don’t know. I can’t find any studies about this and I know of no discussion with any of my previous MM CC clients that talk about this issue. I can’t think of any reason why non-melanoma skin cancer would affect an increased risk of blood cancers but I can’t support my thinking with research.
The issue is what can you do about it.
As the article linked and excerpted below explains, multiple myeloma causes abnormal proteins in the blood. These abnormal proteins crowd out white blood cells. The human body needs white blood cells to fight infection as well as prevent cancer.
“Results of a large analysis conducted in Sweden show that multiple myeloma patients are more likely than the general population to develop certain cancers, including acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, and non-melanoma skin cancer.
Furthermore, the researchers found that patients with the myeloma precursor disease monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance also have a greater risk of developing these cancers than the general population.
Like myeloma patients, Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance patients have abnormal proteins in the blood as a result of defective plasma cells in the bone marrow…
MGUS patients also had a 1.56-fold increased risk of developing non-blood-related cancer compared to the general population, most commonly non-melanoma skin, endocrine, and breast cancer…”
“Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) may be more likely to develop melanoma than the general population, according to a poster presented at 2022 American College of Mohs Surgery Annual Meeting. They also may face a higher overall but not melanomas-specific mortality rate, the findings showed.
These results were based on an analysis of publicly available data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 18 Registries, November 2020 submission. The study assessed data on 79,174 patients with MM, 261 of whom developed at least 1 melanoma.
Factors the researchers examined in this cohort of 177 men and 84 women included: sex, age at MM diagnosis, race, Hispanic origin, household income, urban versus rural geographic location, anatomic location of the tumor(s), Breslow thickness, all-cause mortality, melanoma-specific mortality, and survival duration…”
