Donald Rumsfeld, who served as the U.S. Defense Secretary under two Presidents, died Wednesday at age 88. The New York Times reports died from multiple myeloma, a rare blood cancer.
“It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the passing of Donald Rumsfeld, an American statesman and devoted husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. At 88, he was surrounded by family in his beloved Taos, New Mexico,” the family said in a statement.
Read MoreWhat Is Multiple Myeloma?
Nearly 35,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma each year. This cancer starts in a type of white blood cell known as a plasma cell. Made in bone marrow, plasma cells produce proteins called antibodies that help our bodies fight off bacteria, viruses, and other harmful invaders.Hematologist and SurvivorNet advisor, Dr. Nina Shah, explains multiple myeloma
In multiple myeloma, plasma cells multiply too quickly and crowd out healthy blood cells. “Because of that, they can cause different symptoms,” Dr. Nina Shah, a multiple myeloma specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told SurvivorNet in an earlier interview.
As the cancerous plasma cells proliferate inside the bones, they disrupt the processes that keep bones healthy, leading to symptoms such as bone pain and fractures. They can also spread to other parts of your body and cause problems with organs like your kidneys.
What Increases Your Risk for Multiple Myeloma?
Here are a few factors that might increase your risk:
- Age. Most people with this cancer are diagnosed in their 60s, although it is possible to get multiple myeloma earlier in life.
- Family history. Having a sibling, parent, or other close relative with this cancer could increase your risk.
- Gender. Men are at slightly higher risk for this cancer than women.
- Race. African Americans tend to have higher rates of this disease, although it is still relatively rare. Asian Americans are least likely to get this cancer.
- Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). This condition with the hard-to-pronounce name simply means that you have too much of an abnormal protein–called monoclonal protein–in your bone marrow and blood. MGUS is rare, and the risk that it will turn into multiple myeloma is only 1% each year.
Myeloma expert, Dr. Jens Hillengass, explains why multiple myeloma is more common in African American people
How Do You Treat Multiple Myeloma?
Not everyone with multiple myeloma needs treatment right away. If you have smoldering multiple myeloma, your doctor might simply monitor you regularly, to see if your disease progresses.
If you develop symptoms or your doctor thinks you need treatment, there are many options.
Bone Marrow (Stem Cell) Transplant
This is also known as a stem cell transplant. It is a procedure to replace diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow without myeloma cells.
Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy targets abnormalities in myeloma cells that allow the cancer to survive. Examples of targeted agents your doctor may use include bortezomib (Velcade), carfilzomib (Kyprolis), and ixazomib (Sarclisa). These drugs are either given in a pill or through an IV, and cause myeloma cells to die by preventing the breakdown of certain proteins in myeloma cells.
Biologic Therapy
Biologic therapy is another class of medication your treatment team may use to treat your myeloma. These medications use your body’s immune system to help fight and kill myeloma cells. This class of medication is most often given in pill form and include medications such as thalidomide (Thalidomid), lenalidomide (Revlimid), and pomalidomide (Pomalyst).
Chemotherapy
Sometimes your treatment team may recommend chemotherapy to treat your myeloma. Chemotherapy uses strong medicine to target cancer cells throughout your body.
New Developments in Treatment
Despite the large number of treatments that are available for multiple myeloma, it's common for this blood cancer to come back after treatment, or to not respond to several different treatments. Now doctors have a new way to treat multiple myeloma, thanks to the recent approval of idecabtagene vicleucel (brand name: Abecma), a relatively new type of cancer treatment called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR T-cell) therapy.
"CAR T-cells are cells that we can take from your body and engineer to specifically recognize the multiple myeloma, and to kill those cells," says Dr. Nina Shah, hematologist and professor of clinical medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).
Most multiple myeloma cells have a protein on their surface called B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA). Abecma attaches to BCMA, which causes the cells to die. In studies, the treatment produced response rates of 70% to 90% or even higher, that lasted for an average of nearly 11 months.
RELATED: Your Complete Guide to CAR T Therapy for Multiple Myeloma
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