Nikhil C. Munshi, MD | Authors

June 01, 2016

This management guide covers the symptoms, diagnosis, screening, staging, and treatment of multiple myeloma, smoldering myeloma, and other plasma cell dyscrasias.

June 14, 2011

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) is the most prevalent of the plasma cell dyscrasias and is characterized by a low level of production of serum monoclonal (M) protein (classically less than 3 g/dL).

March 16, 2010

Responses to treatment of relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma are characteristically short, and median survival is as brief as 6 months. Although prognostic factors in the context of relapsed and refractory disease require further characterization, high-risk patients include those with certain cytogenetic abnormalities, high β2-microglobulin, and low serum albumin.

March 13, 2010

Multiple myeloma is a disseminated malignancy of monoclonal plasma cells that accounts for 15% of all hematologic cancers. In 2009, an estimated 20,580 new cases will be diagnosed in the United States, and 10,580 Americans will die of this disease. Incidence rates for myeloma (5.3 in men and 3.5 in women) and mortality rates (3.7 in men and 2.5 in women) per 100,000 population have remained stable for the past decade.