What is myeloma?
Myeloma is cancer that affects a specific type of white blood cell, called a plasma cell, found in bone marrow.
Plasma cells help people fight infection.
When a plasma cell has an abnormality, it can turn into a myeloma cell and multiply . Once they multiply, the myeloma cells crowd out normal cells.
Myeloma can cause anemia and problems with your bones, immune system, kidneys and more.
There are two pre-cancerous stages of myeloma that can be detected with routine blood tests.
- Stage 1: Monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance (MGUS)
- Stage 2: Smoldering myeloma (SMM), the stage between MGUS and active myeloma
Neither MGUS nor SMM cause symptoms in their early stages, but they can be diagnosed with a simple blood test.
The risk of MGUS progressing to myeloma is ~1% per year .
The average risk of SMM progressing to active myeloma is ~10% per year.
Some high-risk SMM cases are treated. But, in many cases, MGUS and SMM are watched with blood tests and not treated unless they turn into multiple myeloma.
Ask your healthcare provider
For more information about myeloma — and how blood tests can help find precancerous cells before they become cancerous — talk to your HCP.
This resource was created with support fro m an educational grant from Johnson & Johnson.
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