Which Treatment is Right for You?
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. Which of these treatments you receive, and how they are sequenced, depend on several factors, and on whether your treatment team thinks you are a good candidate for a bone marrow transplant.
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. Based on multiple factors, your doctor may decide that a stem cell transplant is best for you. The transplant process can be involved and requires multiple steps. Be sure to discuss this with your treating team to understand what is involved and what options are available.
If you’re not a good candidate for chemotherapy, your treatment options include targeted therapies, biologics, and steroids.
Targeted Therapy
Targeted therapy is now available for patients with multiple myeloma, and 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. You doctor may also use other targeted agents in the class of medications known as monoclonal antibodies.
Biologic Therapy
Biologic therapy is another class of medication your treatment team may use to treat your myeloma. These medications use your bodys 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. If your doctor recommends a bone marrow transplant high doses of chemotherapy are used for this purpose.
Steroids
Occasionally, doctors may use corticosteroids such as dexamethasone or prednisone as part of your treatment. Steroids are different from chemotherapy, targeted therapy, and biologic therapy. They work to reduce inflammation throughout your body. Steroids are given as a pill, and are also active against myeloma cells.
Radiation
Radiation uses high-dose X-rays to stop cancer cells from dividing. It is sometimes used to target myeloma in specific areas that may be causing you issues or pain. It is also used if there are tumors or deposits of myeloma cells that need to be treated, such as a plasmacytoma — a tumor made of abnormal plasma cells — of the bone.
Sometimes the cancer can return, or relapse after treatment. If this happens, your doctor can put you on one of the treatments you’ve already tried again, try a new treatment, or recommend that you enroll in a clinical trial.
Any of these treatments can cause side effects, which may include nerve pain and fatigue. Your doctor can adjust your medication if you do have side effects. In general, you should start to feel better once your treatment starts to work.
How will induction therapy make me feel? Dr. Shah gives you an overview of what to expect.
Then you’ll reach the maintenance phase of treatment. Now that your doctor has gotten your cancer under control, from here the goal is to keep your disease stable and to maintain your quality of life. Which type of maintenance therapy you get, and what prognosis you can expect, will depend on whether your doctor determines that your multiple myeloma is standard risk or high risk.
Hematologist-oncologist Dr. Adam Cohen lays out your options during the maintenance phase of treatment
One of SurvivorNet’s experts describes the maintenance process for this disease as similar to lawn care. Once you care for your lawn and it’s no longer overgrown (that’s the initial treatment), it will need some tending—but with that attention (such as low doses of maintenance drugs), it can remain healthy.
Why the many phases of multiple myeloma are like caring for your lawn, says hematologic cancer specialist, Dr. Sid Ganguly
Sometimes this disease will return, even when you’re on maintenance therapies. You’ll still have treatments available if this happens.
Though it can be daunting to choose treatments for relapsed multiple myeloma, the medical experts at SurvivorNet are here to help you make sense of them. Remember that you do have options, and that the goal—which becomes more achievable with each new treatment that’s introduced—is to preserve your quality of life and extend your lifespan.