One Man's Fight Against 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, leading to fatigue.
The treatment for this type of blood cancer is often described as “brutal,” and the Saint Paul, Minn.-based writer and producer is currently recovering from a bone marrow transplant he had just a few weeks ago.
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"I will never not be grateful for another day, and the sun coming up because I felt some pretty dark ones in the past few weeks,” he shared. saying he is most grateful for his wife, Sheri. “She has been my rock through this. I could not take care of myself, and she was there. I don’t know what I would have done. I couldn’t have got through this on my own.”
Now, with a new lease on life, Boyd is ready for this next chapter. “I’m going to be living life differently. Because I truly know now what a gift life is,” he said. “And I’m not going to waste a day of itnot one day.”
What is Multiple Myeloma?
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer involving plasma cellsa certain kind of mature white blood cell in the bone marrow that helps fight infection by producing proteins. These proteins help your immune system fend itself against germs. In order to understand multiple myeloma, it's equally as important to understand 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.
Bone marrow is responsible for making red blood cells, which bring oxygen to our tissueand also white blood cells, which fight infections and platelets, which, in turn, 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 then inhibits the immune system's ability to fight off infection, leading 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."
Contributing by SurvivorNet staff.
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