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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When Will My Myeloma Relapse?
When will my myeloma relapse? Is one of the most frequently asked questions from newly diagnosed MM (NDMM) patients. While it’s impossible to predict the future of NDMM, there are a couple of statistics in the study below.
While most MM patients don’t know when their MM will relapse, the study below highlights two relapse statistics:
- about 10% of those starting a novel therapy had an early relapse (within 12 months),
- while 28% had their first relapse within 24 months of starting treatment.
What Are Some Clinical Myeloma Relapse Predictors?
I am a long-term MM survivor. I found it interesting that the study below highlighted two fundamentally different types of MM relapse.
- symptomatic relapse
- a biochemical relapse
While every MMer is discouraged by their relapse, it is important to establish the difference between a symptomatic and biochemical relapse. I say this because it a world of potentially measuring OS in months or years, MM patients need to understand that a biochemical relapse means that their MM is not causing damage to their bodies. There is no need to rush to begin treatment ASAP.
Are you a MM survivor facing relapse? Email me at David.PeopleBeatingCancer@gmail.com to discuss possible therapy options.
Hang in there,
David Emerson
- MM Survivor
- MM Cancer Coach
- Director PeopleBeatingCancer
First relapse in multiple myeloma: the patient perspective
“Recent data from newly diagnosed patients show that:
- about 10% of those starting a novel therapy had an early relapse (within 12 months),
- while 28% had their first relapse within 24 months of starting treatment.
Peak risk of early relapse in this study was between 12 and 18 months.2 Typically, the longest remission time is with your first treatment, so early relapse can be an indicator of more aggressive disease progression…
Taken by surprise: 63% of those who relapsed had no new symptoms3
The first thing to know about relapse is that you may not know you’ve relapsed. Relapses differ from person to person and can be symptomatic or asymptomatic. Research shows that people who have a “silent relapse” (detected by blood test and not causing symptoms) have better outcomes than those who are treated after symptoms reappear.4-8 In symptomatic relapse, symptoms may be similar to those experienced when the diagnosis of multiple myeloma was first made…
For 72%, relapse was discovered via test results, demonstrating the importance of regular checkups to monitor any M spikes.3Elevated M spikes, or myeloma gamma globulin levels in the blood, can indicate a relapse…
In most cases, your hematologist-oncologist may suspect a relapse after receiving blood work or imaging test results that show changes in blood globulin levels, developing bone lesions, and/or increases in bone marrow plasma cells.11…
The first type is a symptomatic relapse where you have symptoms of organ damage at disease relapse as detected using CRAB. CRAB criteria includes11:
- Calcium level increase
- Renal impairment (loss of kidney function)
- Anemia (decreased hemoglobin levels in the blood)
- Bone damage
The second type is a biochemical relapse meaning there is an increase in paraproteins (abnormal protein in the blood, sometimes called M protein) without “CRAB.” Biochemical relapses can be detected by assays such as13:
- Multiparametric flow cytometry
- Allele-specific oligonucleotide
- Next-generation sequencing
These medical advances allow several hundred thousand to millions of bone marrow cells to be examined for the presence of residual multiple myeloma cells…
In the HealthTree Foundation survey,
- 39% of people with relapse weren’t asked about their treatment goals.3
- Just 44% said they were asked about their treatment and lifestyle goals3
Don’t be afraid to talk with your healthcare team about how you feel about the relapse, any worries you may have about treatment side effects, or concerns around time from work or family disruptions.
Also talk with them about future plans you may have around moving, travel, or taking up hobbies. For example, a patient with plans to travel to Europe for an extended period was able to work with his healthcare team to develop a treatment plan that allowed him to fulfill that dream, exemplifying how open conversations result in solutions that control disease after first remission, but also enable patients to live life on their terms.14…
People who experience their first relapse often want to be treated as early as possible, with
- 88% of HealthTree Foundation survey respondents reporting that they wanted to start therapy right away.
- About half of those surveyed were treated within 1 to 3 months,
- with an additional 23% being treated within 4 to 6 months…
Tips for living with multiple myeloma after first relapse
Multiple myeloma is a remitting/relapsing disease, which means that it follows a pattern of symptoms that worsen, and then improve or go away. Nearly all of those diagnosed will experience a relapse followed by remission.11
- Most people with standard-risk multiple myeloma stay in remission for 2 to 3 years, although remission can last longer11
- Others may have early relapse, which happens during or shortly after their first line of therapy, or very early relapse, which happens within 9 months of diagnosis3
When will my myeloma relapse When will my myeloma relapse When will my myeloma relapse