What is myeloma leukemia

The blood is removed via a needle in a vein in one arm, passing through a separating machine, which then puts the healthy portion of the blood combined with new replacement plasma back into a vein in the other arm. Stem cell transplant involves a high dose of chemotherapy to destroy the bone marrow, followed by transplanted blood-forming stem cells to rescue the bone marrow and help restore the blood cell numbers. This is an intense form of treatment which is completed in several stages.

The entire procedure can take several months to complete and it is not suitable for everyone. Most people who undergo a stem cell transplant receive their own previously collected stem cells autologous transplant. Sometimes stem cells from another person are used allogeneic transplant. In some cases of myeloma, your medical team may talk to you about palliative care.

Palliative care aims to improve your quality of life by alleviating symptoms of cancer. As well as slowing the spread of myeloma, palliative treatment can relieve pain and help manage other symptoms. Treatment may include radiotherapy, chemotherapy or other drug therapies. There are no proven measures to prevent myeloma.

However, certain chemicals e. It is not possible for a doctor to predict the exact course of a disease, as it will depend on each person's individual circumstances. However, your doctor may give you a prognosis, the likely outcome of the disease, based on the type of myeloma you have, the test results, the rate of tumour growth, as well as your age, fitness and medical history.

Treatment for myeloma is constantly improving and it can help control the disease, manage the symptoms and improve quality of life, but currently cannot cure it. When the myeloma is under control, people usually return to a state of good health, which may last for several months or years before further treatment is needed.

Shop Online. Contact Us. Cancer information What is cancer? Common cancer symptoms Facts and figures Explore What is cancer? Jump to:. Jump to section. About myeloma. Screening and Early Detection. What is myeloma? Myeloma symptoms bone pain or a broken bone without an obvious injury frequent infections or an infection that is difficult to overcome tiredness, shortness of breath or a racing heart kidney problems heavy nosebleeds or easy bruising feeling sick, drowsy or confused abnormal blood counts.

Causes of myelmoma The causes of myelmoma are unknown. Diagnosis of myeloma Tests to diagnose myeloma may include: Blood and urine tests There are a number of blood and urine tests used to diagnose myeloma. X-rays X-rays are usually taken of the head, spine, ribs, hips, legs and arms to see if there is any bone damage caused by myeloma cells. Scans A CT scan produces three-dimensional images to see a part of the body in more detail, or to look for areas of bone damage that may not appear on an x-ray.

Bone marrow biopsy A bone marrow aspirate and trephine biopsy is used to examine cells from the marrow. They crowd out the healthy plasma cells and the normal stem cells in the bone marrow that form the white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets.

If not treated, the cancerous cells can:. Doctors don't know why some cells become myeloma cells and others don't. For most people who have myeloma, there are no obvious reasons why they developed the disease. Source: Myeloma. Reviewed by Ruben Niesvizky, MD. It is a cancer of plasma cells, which are a type of white blood cells also called plasma B cells.

A single tumor is called "solitary plasmacytoma. Doctors divide myeloma into groups that describe how rapidly or slowly the disease is progressing: Asymptomatic or smoldering myeloma progresses slowly and has no symptoms even though the patient has the disease.

This type of myeloma requires monitoring but often no treatment. Patients need to be checked often for signs of progression to fully developed myeloma that requires treatment. Excess immunoglobulin fragments can also cause damage to the kidneys. The myeloma type is described by which type of excess immunoglobulin is produced. If excess heavy chains are produced it is termed heavy chain myeloma, and if excess light chains are produced it is called light chain myeloma.

Myeloma is classified according to how the disease has affected the plasma cells in the bone marrow and blood. In the majority of cases myeloma is found in multiple bone marrow sites at diagnosis, which is why the disease is sometimes called multiple myeloma.

Myeloma can also be classified according to the type of immunoglobulin being secreted by the myeloma cells, and how it affects the body. The symptoms of myeloma depend on how advanced the disease is.

In the earliest stages there may be no symptoms and myeloma may be detected by coincidence during a routine blood test. The exact cause of myeloma remains unknown. However certain factors that may put some people at a higher risk of developing myeloma include exposure to higher doses of radiation and ongoing exposure to certain industrial or environmental chemicals.

However, the exact cause or cases of myeloma remain unknown.