Multiple Myeloma Prognosis Life Expectancy

Multiple myeloma prognosis life expectancy - Why do people beat the average forecast of life expectancy with multiple myeloma? Or how to improve the survival rate of myeloma! I posted this topic over a year ago and it was very useful for many within the community of patients with myeloma. I provided some updates and hope this will help you in your journey through myeloma.

Recent data from the SEER (surveillance, epidemiology and end results) for multiple myeloma was published in 2013 by the National Cancer Institute, and the average life expectancy remains at 4 years for the third consecutive year. Multiple myelomas genetic - However, some people beat the odds and live 10 to 20 years or more. When I was first diagnosed, the data for a person with dialysis-dependent kidney failure was just 3 months and the overall average was 3 years. I'm having a 7-year-old and 10-month survivor, so at the time I beat the median forecast of life expectancy, even with a negative prognostic indicator (kidney failure). I believe that you can split into two parts a patient's ability to win. The first part depends on the disease or by the hands that you received. The second part deals with the level of assistance that is available to you.

Multiple Myeloma Prognosis Life Expectancy

Some people are just lucky and have a form of myeloma that is not so aggressive. One example of this is smoldering myeloma. This form of the disease may be present in the patient but not show any external symptoms. He can stay in this mode for 5, 10 or even 20 years. The age of the patient is very important because you are twice as likely to survive if you are diagnosed. The average age of the typical patient with myeloma is 70 years.

See also: Multiple Myeloma Symptoms of End Stage

Some people can have the active disease but have no negative prognostic indicators. These include, but are not limited to, delecia chromosome 17p and translocations of 4, 14 or 14, 16 or 14, 20. Your specialist for myeloma will take the test FISH or other genetic tests to determine whether you have any of these negative prognostic indicators. If you are considered high risk, life expectancy is only half of the current average or just two years.

Also important is the sensitivity of the disease to treatment. My myeloma seemed to be very sensitive to the combination of Cytoxan, Thalomid, and dexamethasone and quickly pulled me into remission. Some people can have the same experience with Revlimid, Velcade, or Dex, or any combination of these drugs. If the disease returns, as is often the case, repeated application of the same mode can last for many years. I know one patient who took Thalomid for many years as the only treatment and remains in remission. This works well for him.

And, of course, if an average of four years, half the people will always beat the average. I'm sure there are other factors of the disease, but there is an additional part of the control of disease, which you may or may not affect.

Multiple Myeloma Prognosis Life Expectancy: Quality of care

There are some items that you may or may not have great control, the first of which is the availability of insurance. If you have no insurance or no access to medical care, the average life expectancy of less than one year. However, Medicare has a compassionate allowances program, where you can be approved in less than two weeks, if you go to your local office and will be able to show that you will not live without assistance. The act of help available could provide an opportunity for the 15% that are uninsured, as well as assistance programs Medicare, Medicaid, and drug company. In addition, there are other programs that can help, listed at the bottom of the home page. Unfortunately, not caring, as people who need dialysis (which is always covered by Medicare), you will have a life expectancy below average.

Multiple myeloma - a rare blood cancer, so many hematologists/oncologists may not see one patient in a year. As a result, not all oncologists or hematologists are the same. However, some of them very skilled and experienced with multiple myeloma and treated many patients with myeloma. Data show that these professionals give myeloma the average life expectancy of 10 years or more, while the average value remains stagnant at 4 years.

For a listing of these exceptional specialists or for a more extensive list without survival history check references. And obviously, if your specialist has a myeloma life expectancy of patients 10 years, their patients will beat the average by more than two times compared to the average. Be Match also collects statistics on survival with install for allogeneic (donor) transplants for myeloma.

That's what I did when choosing my SCT (stem cell transplantation) at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences UAMS, which has a myeloma program called MIRT, Institute for research and therapy of Myeloma. At that time they had more than 10 000 transplants under their belt, and as a result, they were experts at this process and know what can go wrong and you have a plan that allows you to overcome any possible complications. I found from my work on this site that centers like Mayo, Dr. Hari (Medical College of Wisconsin), UAMS, or Dr. Berenson's (IMBCR) have very different approaches to treatment, but because they are experts in what they do, They have similar results. If you had a brain tumor, you would choose a brain surgeon. Why don't you do the same for myeloma?

See also: Prognosis for Multiple Myeloma

Specialists myeloma have access to medications that others do not have oncologists. Because they are leaders of thought, they participate in clinical trials and may receive some medication through other programs, which few of the prominent oncologists do not have access. Worse, oncologists are not the experts in myeloma, may not even know that some of these products even exist. For example, some of the well-connected specialists have access to unauthorized drugs, such as Daytona man Exosomes or through special programs. Or some specialists can use drugs that are only approved for relapse or secondary therapy (Krypolis and Pomalyst, and get permission to use them for newly diagnosed patients, as well as have access to the best clinical trials such as Velcade-Revlimid-Dexamethasone, Which gives the answer in 100% of patients. When you run out options with an approved currently medications, they can provide access to those that show promising results in clinical trials but are currently unavailable to the General public. You need a significant infrastructure for conducting clinical trials at your facility, and they cost $ 15,000 per patient from the few local oncologists have access to clinical trials. Sometimes it's who you know!

Myeloma patients seldom die from myeloma, they die from complications of myeloma. Uspavana number one is pneumonia, and others include infection, renal failure, anemia, etc. maintenance therapy for the treatment of many complications of this disease can be as important as the treatment of cancer, Or a great defense (supportive care) is as important as the offense (cancer therapy). Clinic MD Anderson and Mayo emphasize support in their programs, UAMS actually has a Director of nursing in the myeloma program, and Dr. Elias Anaissie, Director of the Myeloma program at the University Cincinnati Ohio cancer center, has extensive experience in supportive therapy.

I also believe that the quality of care that you receive can also be affected by knowledge of the patient, and this can be obtained by conducting your research to find the best approaches to care by looking at the work of the best specialists in myeloma online, And by going to great sites as listed on the website www.myelomasurvival.com and on the Myeloma Crowd website. In addition, joining a support group of the International Myeloma Foundation or the LLS (leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma society) will provide more detailed information to improve your life expectancy. I found that the average life expectancy of most of these groups supports far above the average. Knowledge is power!

In the U.S. there are 80 000 patients with multiple myeloma, and if we can move the average from 4 years to 10 years life expectancy with specialists in myeloma, we could save 80,000 times 6, or 480,000 years of life. Many times more if we include the whole world.

One of the ways youru to help with myeloma awareness is to get this messagonin their Facebook, Twitter or other social contacts in social networks. You may not know someone with myeloma, but your contacts might, and you may just help SAVE a LIFE! Just hit the Twitter and Facebook icons at the end of this message to share. Good luck and God bless myeloma journey.