Articles - Miscellaneous

Myeloma Awareness Week

In January 2003, when I was 52 I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. Public awareness of this condition remains low despite an increasing number of around 4,000 new cases each year. Myeloma is a malignant disease of blood plasma cells where the cells grow uncontrollably. This condition seriously affected my spine and sacrum. The uncontrolled growth of plasma cells has many consequences including skeletal destruction. I had seven vertebral fractures. As a result I have lost 5 inches in height. Myeloma is a relatively rare condition. The average GP will see only one or two cases in their career. Diagnoses are often made up to six months after the onset of symptoms. I first presented with serious back pain in May 2002.

The causes of myeloma are unknown. Some experts believe that the increased incidence among younger people is due to environmental pollutants, the disease remaining asymptomatic for years, often decades. In the 1970's I would have been exposed to nuclear pollution whilst doing my PhD. I have no way of knowing if this was the cause but have recently learned that a co-worker also had myeloma.

There is no cure for myeloma. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are used to help alleviate the symptoms. Chemotherapy helps kill malignant plasma cells with the aim of inducing remission. Radiotherapy is used at the sites of bone destruction and pain. I had a week's radiotherapy in January 2003 at Cookridge Hospital; followed by several months oral chemotherapy as an out patient, alongside a course of steroids, thalidomide and morphine - I peaked at 50 tablets a day! (Thalidomide which many will know as a drug given decades ago to relieve morning sickness in pregnancy with disastrous results, is an effective treatment for myeloma - it was featured in a recent Horizon programme on TV. It starves tumours of their blood supply but has side effects - it has left me with nerve irritation in my fingers and toes.)

The most aggressive treatment for myeloma is ASCT - Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation. This involves the use of a very potent dose of chemotherapy to destroy almost all the myeloma cells. Almost 2 years ago I underwent a stem cell transplantation. (Stem cells are cells found in bone marrow. In circulating blood they can generate new red and white blood cells.) The transplant was of my own cells, which were collected prior to beginning chemotherapy. The collecting was done over a period of 3 days as an out-patient with a process similar to kidney dialysis. 3.7 million cells were harvested. The cells were frozen and re-infused a few days later when I was an in-patient. As the high dose chemotherapy had killed my bone marrow, I needed 8 units of blood until I could produce my own blood cells. Whilst my transplanted stem cells became effective I was confined for weeks to my own room at Leeds General Infirmary in virtual isolation because the chemotherapy had removed my natural resistance to infection.

The International Myeloma Foundation (UK) www.myeloma.org.uk will be running Myeloma Awareness Week from 21st - 28th June 2005 focussing on making myeloma manageable. A number of new drugs to treat those who have relapsed are in various stages of clinical trial, excellent news for myeloma patients. IMF(UK)'s new honorary patron Maureen Lipman whose late husband, writer Jack Rosenthal had myeloma will no doubt be much in evidence. Another myeloma patient, Bishop David Young, offered his support to last year's awareness campaign in Leeds.

During the last week of June please include in your prayers all those with myeloma, their families, and those treating them and working on ways of improving treatment.

David Everett

1 June, 2005