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Familial or Genetic Predisposition to Multiple Myeloma?
“Family pedigree analyses of high-risk families, case-control studies and racial disparities in disease incidence all point to a potential inherited predisposition to MM…”
My grandmother and mother both lost their lives to Multiple Myeloma. My mom passed on 2/2019 just 3 months after her MM diagnosis.
She never had any pain at all. Its a long and complicated explanation. To make a long story short. She started her MM treatment and a week later was hospitalized with heart failure. She was gone a month later.
Five months later I started having shortness of breath, rib pain, fatigue. I just had kidney stones and my kidney function is normal. I am pretty anemic as well. Also I need to drop about 60lbs. I haven’t seen a doctor yet. Im terrified. What do you recommend? Thank you! Lenora
Hi Lenora,
I do not blame you for being anxious. While there is little research establishing familial links in MM, I too would be worried if my parent and grandparent both died of MM.
Having said that, several things to consider.
First and foremost, diagnosing most any health challenge, yes, MM too, earlier identification of the issues is preferable than diagnosing it later. Yes, going to the doctor to get yourself checked out requires bit of fortitude. But knowing is much better than not knowing, at least in my experience.
Let me give you some details, at least where MM is concerned.
By talking about your mom’s MM diagnosis, I don’t mean to sound disrespectful. But it sounds like your mom’s MM was advanced when she was first diagnosed. According to research, 95% of MM patients are diagnosed at stage 2 or stage 3 aka advanced.
The MM patient has few therapy options when diagnosed at stage 2 or 3.
If your mom’s MM was advanced, her oncologist probably gave her a lot of chemotherapy. The oncologist may have believed that higher dose chemotherapy was needed to control your mom’s MM. A diagnosis of MM earlier can mean less chemotherapy is needed to control the MM.
Less chemo, less toxicity, fewer side effects.
As for actual research into the issue you are asking about- inherited predisposition to MM, according to the article linked below, I think you would quality as “high risk.”
While the study linked below talks about
- studies are currently underway in MM
- identified several potential regions of interest for further study
- common target in persons with myeloma
- suggesting a subset of cases
- begun to identify promising candidate genes
I don’t see any real specific information that you can act on. It is not as if we are talking about breast cancer and you have either the BRCA 1 or 2 gene.
What do I recommend?
Go see an oncologist. Ask him/her to run
- serum protein electrophoresis (SPEP),
- immunoglobulins
- CBC.
- Free light chain assay,
diagnostic testing that he/she would use to identify multiple myeloma. Again, even if you are diagnosed with MM, the sooner you find out, the better.
Regardless of what, if anything the oncologist finds out, I encourage you to undergo a non-toxic, anti-MM lifestyle through
- nutrition
- supplementation
- lifestyle
Frequent, moderate exercise, more fruits and veggies, less sugar, less animal fat, etc. are all steps you can undergo that will decrease your risk to MM certainly, but will also decrease your risks to a host of other chronic diseases.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Let me know wha the oncologist says.
Hang in there.
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Recommended Reading:
- Multiple Myeloma Chemotherapy – Antioxidants Enhance Action
- Multiple Myeloma Diagnosis? 6 Experience-based Non-Conventional Therapies
- Multiple Myeloma Side Effects, Pain and C-B-D oil
Inherited predisposition to multiple myeloma
“Family pedigree analyses of high-risk families, case-control studies and racial disparities in disease incidence all point to a potential inherited predisposition to MM…
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified susceptibility loci in a number of cancers and such studies are currently underway in MM. To date, GWASs in MM have identified several potential regions of interest for further study on chromosomes 3p22, 7p15.3, 8q24 and 2p23.3.
In addition, several targets of paraproteins (so called ‘paratargs’) in MM have been identified. Hyperphosphorylation of the paratarg protein, which is inherited in an autosomal dominant manner, appears a common mechanism underlying the antigenicity of these proteins.
One particular protein, hyperphosphorylated paratarg-7 (pP-7) is a common target in persons with myeloma and has also been identified in affected members of several high-risk MM families…
Genetic predisposition for multiple myeloma
“Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common blood malignancy. Epidemiological family studies going back to the 1920s have provided evidence for familial aggregation, suggesting a subset of cases have an inherited genetic background.
Recently, studies aimed at explaining this phenomenon have begun to provide direct evidence for genetic predisposition to MM. Genome-wide association studies have identified common risk alleles at 24 independent loci.
Sequencing studies of familial cases and kindreds have begun to identify promising candidate genes where variants with strong effects on MM risk might reside. Finally, functional studies are starting to give insight into how identified risk alleles promote the development of MM. Here, we review recent findings in MM predisposition field, and highlight open questions and future directions.”