A Swedish study published in Haematologica suggests that infections are a major cause of morbidity and mortality in patients with multiple myeloma.
The population-based study of 9253 patients showed that infection caused 22% of deaths in patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
To estimate the risk of bacterial and viral infections in multiple myeloma patients they used population-based data from Sweden to identify all multiple myeloma patients (n=9253) diagnosed from 1988 to 2004 with follow up to 2007 and 34,931 matched controls. Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate the risk of infections.
multiple myeloma patients had a 7-fold risk of developing infection
The population-based study of 9253 patients showed that infection caused 22% of deaths in patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma.
Multiple myeloma patients diagnosed in the more recent calendar periods had significantly higher risk of infections compared to controls (P<0.001).
This study confirms that infections represent a major threat to multiple myeloma patients. The effect on infectious complications due to novel drugs introduced in the treatment of multiple myeloma needs to be established and trials on prophylactic measures are needed.
The World Myeloma Forum is working on developing a new tool to help clinicians manage adverse events and complications arising from the use of novel treatments and their combinations.
References:
[Haematologica. 2015 Jan;100(1):107-13. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2014.107714. Epub 2014 Oct 24.]