Prognosis and staging of multiple myeloma

Abstract

Multiple myeloma (MM) is still considered an incurable disease and has a median survival ranging between 3 and 6 years. Nevertheless, the response rate and outcome are highly variable among MM patients, with some surviving for more than 10 years and others living for only a few months [1, 2]. In the main, this heterogeneity relates to specific characteristics of the tumor itself and of the host. The identification of those characteristics associated with either a good or a poor prognosis is most important not only for doctors but also for patients, in order to obtain more individualized information about disease outcome, instead of simply offering a general median survival rate.