Understanding Multiple Myeloma
- NBC-Affiliated TV reporter Boyd Huppert was diagnosed with multiple myeloma last September.
- Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer involving plasma cells a certain kind of mature white blood cell in the bone marrow that helps fight infection by producing proteins that help your immune system fend itself against germs.
- For people with multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells, or myelomas, grow uncontrollably in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy white blood cells. This, in turn, inhibits the immune system's ability to fight off infection which leads to fatigue.
Huppert, 60, is an award-winning journalist for KARE 11 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Over the years he's won 20 National Edward R. Murrow Awards, a national Emmy for feature reporting, 128 regional Emmys and the Scripps Howard Award, among other recognitions. In addition to his work as a general assignment reporter, he also hosts the station's weekly Land of 10,000 Stories segment.
Read MoreFast forward to today, and Huppert is undergoing chemotherapy to prepare him for a bone marrow transplant, or stem cell transplant, this month. He’s been responding well to the treatments, and knows what to expect from the weekly jab.
“In about six hours, I’ll be a completely different guy,” Huppert said. “It’ll be the opposite of fatigue for the next two days. I won’t be able to sleep. And then, I’ll hit the wall and roll up into a ball on the couch. It’s like clockwork.”
Huppert, understandably so, winces as the 2-centimeter needle punctures his stomach for treatment. But those who know the reporter best have no doubt he’s got what it takes to tackle anything that comes his way.
“Boyd is a farm boy at heart who doesn’t know any approach other than getting up when the sun comes up and going to work,” KARE anchor and cancer survivor Randy Shaver said. “That’s the mental toughness you need when you go through treatment. Underneath that nice-guy persona, there’s a steely resolve.”
And Huppert knows he has a lot of people in his corner. His KARE team even threw him a 60th birthday party back in January where 40 co-workers arrived in his driveway with chocolate cake and balloons.
“We can’t even get this many people together for a staff meeting,” anchor Chris Hrapsky said as Huppert did socially distant greetings.
To say the people who care about him have stepped up to show their support is an understatement.
“We haven’t had to make a meal in two months,” Huppert said. “I have to get up at 6:30 in the morning to plow my own driveway otherwise someone else will do it.”
What Is Multiple Myeloma?
Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer involving plasma cells a certain kind of mature white blood cell in the bone marrow that helps fight infection by producing proteins that help your immune system fend itself against germs. So, in order to understand multiple myeloma, it's important to talk about the bone marrow.
What Is a Blood Cancer How Is It Different?
"The bone marrow is the factory that makes all of the cells that wind up in our bloodstream," Dr. Mikkael Sekeres, the chief of the Division of Hematology at the University of Miami Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, previously told SurvivorNet.
The bone marrow makes red blood cells which bring oxygen to our tissues, white blood cells which fight infections and platelets which help stop bleeding. For people with multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells, or myelomas, grow uncontrollably in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy white blood cells. This, in turn, inhibits the immune system's ability to fight off infection which leads to fatigue.
Eventually, the myelomas grow too large in the bone marrow which can cause bone fractures. Myelomas can also lead to kidney damage because these cancerous cells release abnormally high levels of antibodies into the bloodstream which eventually build up in the kidney since its unable to process these extra proteins.
University of California at San Francisco hematologist-oncologist Dr. Nina Shah says cases of multiple myeloma can be grouped into categories that help physicians decide on the appropriate courses of treatment.
"We tend to [divide them] based on how risky the myeloma is, whereas other cancers will be staged based on how far the cancer has spread," Dr. Shah previously told SurvivorNet.
The three stages of myeloma include the following:
- High risk multiple myeloma when a patient's cells contain missing segments of DNA or switched segments.
- Intermediate risk multiple myeloma when some of these DNA changes are not present but a patient has elevated levels of certain proteins in the blood.
- Low risk multiple myeloma when a patient has none of these changes.
Technically, there is no cure for this disease, but recent advances in medicine have made room for hope especially with early diagnoses.
"This is still considered an incurable disease," Dr. Shah said. "But we want to make sure we make people understand that it's a disease that you can live with not necessarily have to die of."
Learn more about SurvivorNet's rigorous medical review process.
