ABOUT MULTIPLE MYELOMA
What is multiple myeloma?
Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that affects the blood
Multiple myeloma impacts how your body makes blood cells and fights infections.
- Multiple myeloma damages types of white blood cells called plasma cells. Plasma cells are found in the bone marrow. Healthy plasma cells make antibodies that help the body fight infections. In multiple myeloma, healthy plasma cells sometimes turn into myeloma cells. Myeloma cells grow and multiply much more than normal. They also begin producing harmful antibodies called monoclonal proteins, or M-proteins
- Multiple myeloma cells and M-proteins can cause damage to the bones in which they are located. They can also travel into the blood and harm the body
- Outside the bones, multiple myeloma cells continue to release harmful antibodies into the blood that can travel to and damage different organs, such as the kidneys
How is multiple myeloma treated?
Treatments may help control multiple myeloma by reducing the number of cancerous cells in the body
Although there is no cure for multiple myeloma, there are various treatment options available:
Targeted Therapy
focuses on specific weaknesses within cancer cells and blocks them
Immunotherapy
uses the body’s own immune system to kill cancer cells
Chemotherapy
uses drugs to kill cancer cells
Corticosteroids
control inflammation
Bone marrow transplant
replaces diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow
Radiation therapy
uses high-powered energy
beams to kill cancer cells
CAR-T CELL THERAPY
Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy trains your body's white blood cells to find and kill cancer cells
How might combining different treatment options work for you?
Many doctors combine different medications to treat multiple myeloma because each medication has the potential to fight the cancer and/or symptoms in different ways. This combination of medications is often called a treatment regimen.
Your doctor will consider several factors, including your age and overall health, as well as the effectiveness and safety of each medicine, to determine which regimen may be the right fit for you.
It’s important to talk to your doctor about
which treatment options may be most
appropriate for you.
SARCLISA is a targeted
immunotherapy that works
together with your immune system.
