Recently Diagnosed or Relapsed? Stop Looking For a Miracle Cure, and Use Evidence-Based Therapies To Enhance Your Treatment and Prolong Your Remission
Multiple Myeloma an incurable disease, but I have spent the last 25 years in remission using a blend of conventional oncology and evidence-based nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle therapies from peer-reviewed studies that your oncologist probably hasn't told you about.
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Long-term Myeloma Survivor Immune Systems
If you knew that long-term myeloma survivor immune systems were progressively weakened by all forms of chemotherapy would your therapy plan change? Truth be told, I think most people have seen long-term MM survivors progressively weakened by their chemo over time until…
Remember that your oncologist’s job is to focus on your MM. Studies have shown that certain therapies are cytotoxic to MM. That’s important. Unfortunately those same therapies can weaken your immune system.
The solution?
As you watch this video remember two things- chemo can damage your immune system and more than half of all MM survivors die from infection
Does chemotherapy permanently damage the immune system of myeloma patients?
Chemotherapy can significantly impact the immune system of multiple myeloma patients, but whether the damage is permanent depends on several factors, including the type and intensity of chemotherapy, the patient’s overall health, and whether they undergo a stem cell transplant.
How Chemotherapy Affects the Immune System
- Suppresses White Blood Cells (WBCs): Chemotherapy targets rapidly dividing cells, including white blood cells, which are crucial for immune function.
- Reduces Antibody Production: Myeloma itself affects plasma cells, which produce antibodies. Chemotherapy can further reduce their ability to fight infections.
- Bone Marrow Suppression: Some treatments, like high-dose chemotherapy before a stem cell transplant, can severely impact bone marrow function, leading to long-term immune suppression.
Is the Damage Permanent?
- Short-Term Suppression: The immune system typically recovers after chemotherapy, but this can take months to years, depending on treatment intensity.
- Long-Term Effects: Some patients experience persistent immune dysfunction, especially if their bone marrow function is permanently impaired.
- Stem Cell Transplant Patients: Those who undergo autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplants may take longer to recover immune function, sometimes never fully returning to pre-treatment levels.
- Age & Other Conditions: Older patients or those with other medical conditions may have a harder time regaining immune strength.
Managing Immune Health Post-Chemotherapy
- Vaccinations: Patients may need revaccination for common infections (e.g., pneumonia, flu, COVID-19).
- Infection Prevention: Good hygiene, avoiding sick contacts, and prophylactic antibiotics in some cases.
- Immune-Boosting Therapies: Some patients benefit from IV immunoglobulin (IVIG) therapy if antibody production remains low.
Understand that conventional oncology will focus on MM through therapy, diagnostic testing, etc. Your job is to focus on your body. Your mental health, gut health, sleep, exercise, nutrition, etc.
I am both a long-term MM survivor and MM cancer coach.
Countless MM patients ask me why their oncologists don’t talk to them about their nutrition, supplementation, stress, etc. While I think that these issues are really, really important to MM patients, I understand that board certified oncology does not focus on non-conventional therapies. It just not what they do.
Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com with questions about managing your MM.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
Multiple myeloma long-term survivors exhibit sustained immune alterations decades after first-line therapy
Abstract
The long-term consequences of cancer and its therapy on the patients’ immune system years after cancer-free survival remain poorly understood. Here, we present an in-depth characterization of the bone marrow immune ecosystem of multiple myeloma long-term survivors, from initial diagnosis up to 17 years following a single therapy line and cancer-free survival.
Using comparative single-cell analyses combined with molecular, genomic, and functional approaches, we demonstrate that multiple myeloma long-term survivors exhibit pronounced alterations in their bone marrow microenvironment associated with impaired immunity.
These immunological alterations were frequently linked to an inflammatory immune circuit fueled by the long-term persistence or resurgence of residual myeloma cells. Notably, even in the complete absence of any detectable residual disease for decades, sustained changes in the immune system were observed, suggesting an irreversible ‘immunological scarring’ caused by the initial exposure to the cancer and therapy.
Collectively, our study provides key insights into the molecular and cellular bone marrow ecosystem of long-term survivors of multiple myeloma, revealing both reversible and irreversible alterations in the immune compartment…”
long-term myeloma survivor immune systems long-term myeloma survivor immune systems