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MGUS-IgG Kappa Diagnosis and Freaked Out!
The rate of transformation of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significancer (MGUS) to MM or other lymphoproliferative diseases is 1% per year
Dear Cancer Coach- I have Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS) IGG Kappa and my m-spike has gone up a lot and I’m VERY freaked out and scared! I’m only 36 with 5 kids and want to grow old with my husband and watch my kids grow up. Is there anything I can do? Kathy
Hi Kathy,
I am sorry to read of your MGUS diagnosis. While 36 is young to be diagnosed with this form of pre-MM, keep in mind that 1) you have pre-cancer, not a full-blown diagnosis of cancer. Your prognosis is much different, much better than for a diagnosis of frank MM.
Secondlly, yes, there are many evidence-based, non-toxic therapies shown to reduce your risk of MM.
According to the study linked and excerpted below, your risk of developing full-blown MM is about 1% per year. Further, the risk of your type of MGUS, IgG, has less of a risk of frank MM than does IgM.
Let’s start at the beginning… what was your m-spike at diagnosis? What is your m-spike now? Are you experiencing any symptoms such as bone pain, fatigue or nerve damage? Though MGUS is supposed to be “asymptomatic,” many patients experience MM like symptoms.
Do you have blood work that you can send me? I will email you directly through your email address as well.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
Patterns of survival and causes of death following a diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance: a population-based study
“We compared the survival of 4,259 patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, collected from hematology outpatient units in Sweden, with the survival of the general population by computing relative survival ratios. We also compared causes of death in these patients with those in 16,151 matched controls…
It was reported that the risk of malignant transformation was higher for IgM MGUS than for IgG MGUS.5 In our study, we found similar cause-of-death patterns by MGUS subtype…
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Conclusions-
Our finding of decreased life expectancy in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, which was most pronounced in the elderly and explained by both malignant transformation and non-malignant causes, is of importance in the understanding and clinical management of this disease.
The underlying mechanisms may be causally related to the gammopathy, but may also be explained by underlying disease that led to the detection of the hematologic disease. Our results are of importance since they give a true estimation of survival in patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance diagnosed in clinical practice.
- In summary, we found that individuals diagnosed with MGUS in a clinical setting had a significantly reduced life expectancy. The rate of transformation of MGUS to MM or other lymphoproliferative diseases is 1% per year;5,6 however, the majority of MGUS patients are diagnosed as a result of a clinical investigation for different medical reasons, and were found to die from other causes. The observed excess mortality was particularly pronounced among elderly MGUS patients…”