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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Myeloma Symptom, Side Effect, COD- Kidney, Renal Insufficiency

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“Renal (kidney) impairment is a common complication of multiple myeloma. Chronic renal failure is classified according to glomerular filtration rate (EGFR)…”

Normal kidney function is fundamental to our health. The challenge is, both MM as well as many MM therapies damage kidney health reducing our kidney function. We each have two kidneys but since MM is generally diagnosed in people older than 50 years of age, it is possible that a certain amount of kidney damage has already been sustained.

Experience has taught me that we MM patients and survivors must learn about kidney damage as a MM symptom, side effect, and common cause of death (COD) and then how to heal and protect our kidney function both from the negative effects of their multiple myeloma as well as the negative side effects of standard-of-care MM therapies.

Signs and symptoms of acute kidney failure may include:
  • Decreased urine output, although occasionally urine output remains normal.
  • Fluid retention, causing swelling in your legs, ankles or feet.
  • Shortness of breath.
  • Fatigue.
  • Confusion.
  • Nausea.
  • Weakness.
  • Irregular heartbeat

This blog post What is Multiple Myeloma? Oncology has it backwards… represents a light bulb going off over my head. When I read a study documenting that MM symptoms, side effects and causes of death all overlapped, I almost fell off my chair. Oncology has it backwards… the cure is worse than the disease, as the saying goes…

I think a contributing factor, a problem that contributes to conventional oncology not understanding the long-term damage done by toxic therapies is the fact that different drug companies track side effects differently.

Multiple Myeloma Symptoms Cloud Multiple Myeloma Side Effects-

Kidney failure- fatigue, nausea, weakness, irregular heartbeat, all are both symptoms of MM as well as side effects of MM therapy. Conventional MM oncology’s primary therapy is chemotherapy- Bortezomib/Velcade to be specific.

There are many other therapies shown to heal and protect kidney function while causing MM cell death at the same time.

Kidney damage in Multiple Myeloma:

Possible kidney health therapies and consider adding them to your armamentarium.

If you have any questions about your MM or your kidney health, scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

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To learn more about your multiple myeloma diagnostic criteria click now

Thank you,

David Emerson

  • MM Survivor
  • MM Cancer Coach
  • Director Galen Foundation

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Rapid improvement in renal function in patients with multiple myeloma and renal failure treated with bortezomib

“Multiple Myeloma (MM) frequently presents with renal dysfunction apart from other manifestations. Development of renal failure in patients with MM carries a poor prognosis.

Bortezomib is a new addition to drugs used in MM and has shown good efficacy and safety profiles. Previous trials have shown its efficacy in relapsed and refractory MM as well. Studies have also shown that bortezomib is also effective in patients with MM who present with renal failure.

We report here six cases of renal failure secondary to MM treated with bortezomib. All patients had poor performance status of 3-4 on ECOG scale. Five out of six patients showed satisfactory anti-myeloma response to bortezomib. Reversal of renal failure was observed in all six patients.

Adverse effects to bortezomib were mild and manageable. Reversal of renal failure persisted despite incomplete response to MM in two cases, and progression of disease in one patient. It appears that bortezomib may have an effect on the kidneys in reversal of renal failure, other than its anti-myeloma effect. In conclusion, bortezomib appears to be an effective treatment for patients with advanced MM and renal failure irrespective of performance status and age…”

Renal insufficiency and failure

“Renal impairment is a common complication of multiple myeloma. Chronic renal failure is classified according to glomerular filtration rate (EGFR) as estimated by the MDRD (modification of diet in renal disease) formula, while RIFLE (risk, injury, failure, loss and end-stage renal disease) and AKIN (acute renal injury network) criteria may be used for the definition of the severity of acute renal injury.

Novel criteria based on estimated glomerular filtration rate measurements are proposed for the definition of the reversibility of renal impairment.

  • Renal complete response (CRrenal) is defined as sustained (i.e., lasting at least 2 months) improvement of creatinine clearance (CRCL) from under 50 mL/min at baseline to 60 mL/min or above.
  • Renal partial response (PRrenal) is defined as sustained improvement of CRCL from under 15 mL/min at baseline to 30 to 59 mL/min.
  • Renal minor response (MRrenal) is defined as sustained improvement of the baseline CRCL of under 15 mL/min to 15 to 29 mL/min or, if baseline CRCL was 15 to 29 mL/min, improvement to 30 to 59 mL/min.

Bortezomib with high-dose dexamethasone is considered the treatment of choice for myeloma patients with renal impairment and improves renal function in most patients.

Although there is limited experience with thalidomide, this agent can be administered at the standard dosage to patients with renal failure. Lenalidomide, when administered at reduced doses according to renal function, is effective and can reverse renal impairment in a subset of myeloma patients.”

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