Multiple Myeloma Symptoms

Multiple myeloma counts among relatively rare diseases. In the Czech Republic, about 400 patients are diagnosed each year. Multiple myeloma remains an incurable hematological malignancy, however, given the current scope of the novel medicines, it is successfully treatable. The benefits of the treatment include prolongation of patients’ life. More and more emphasis is placed on the patients’ quality of life which is tightly connected with timely diagnosis and therapy initiation before any serious impairment occurs.

Multiple myeloma patient present with symptoms that are polymorphous, often highly nonspecific:

• anaemia + hyperviscosity syndrome – fatigue, breathlessness, general feebleness, blurred vision, uncertainty when walking, headache
• pain in the skeleton – most frequently the vertical skeleton (vertebrogenic algic syndrome, pathological fracture in case the skeleton is affected by myeloma cells)
• recurrent infections – especially respiratory ones
• signs of renal insufficiency – edems, urinal disorders
• "incidental" laboratory finding – high sedimentatiopn rate (often up to 100), anaemia (especially normo- or macrocytar), high total protein (often over 100 gpl), hypocalcaemia, isolated elevation of ALP, high urea, creatinine, protein in urine, paraprotein detection.

In case a patient presents with the above-described symptoms, it is necessary to consider the multiple myeloma diagnosis, especially in patients aged over 50 years. However, cases of myeloma disease in 30-year-olds have also been reported.