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Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy

The main treatment for active myeloma is systemic drug therapy (meaning the drugs travel through the bloodstream to kill malignant cells). The initial therapy, or “induction therapy,” for myeloma usually includes a combination of targeted agents and/or standard chemotherapy. This therapy is often followed by stem cell transplantation in eligible patients.

Induction therapy, given before the transplant, has several goals:

Talking About Cancer

Telling people about your diagnosis is a very personal decision. Some people with cancer choose to tell only close family. Others find it helps to let more people know about their diagnosis. Take some time to consider what and how much you would like to share about your diagnosis and how you want to share this information. By letting friends and family know about your diagnosis, you give them the chance to offer their support.

Here are some tips and things to keep in mind when telling someone about your diagnosis:

Nora

Nora was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) on August 20, 2018. This is the day our lives were turned upside down and forever changed. Nora was about three weeks away from her second birthday, and we were in utter shock that she would now be fighting an unfathomable battle. After all, this was Nora, our go-hard, go-fast, ray of sunshine. Never did we imagine anything could get her down. But yet, here we were.

Cassie

In April 2023, I started to notice that I was having trouble breathing. I was a perfectly healthy 34-year-old woman who did kickboxing three times a week and was very physically active. I ended up going to a doctor who, for three months, misdiagnosed me with asthma and acid reflux. After about three visits to his office, I was crying to him, begging to be referred to a specialist. I really felt that there was something wrong with me that wasn't asthma.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is the main treatment for ALL. The phases of treatment include the following:

The first phase of chemotherapy is called “induction therapy.” Induction therapy

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

• Is a cancer of the bone marrow and blood
• CML is usually diagnosed in its chronic phase when treatment is very effective for most patients
• CML has three phases

Click here to access CML statistics. 

Diagnosis

While certain signs and symptoms may indicate that a person has ET, a series of tests are needed to confirm the diagnosis. It is important to have an accurate diagnosis, as it helps the doctor to: 

• Estimate how the disease will progress
• Determine the appropriate treatment

Some of these tests may be repeated both during and after treatment to evaluate its effectiveness.

Treatment

Polycythemia Vera (PV) is a chronic disease: It's not curable, but it can usually be managed effectively for very long periods. The goal of therapy is to reduce the risk of thrombosis and to ease symptoms by lowering the number of extra blood cells. 

Many treatment options are designed to manage PV by lowering hematocrit levels below 45 percent for men and 42 percent for women. Careful medical supervision and therapy is important to keep the hematocrit concentration at normal levels. 

Watch and Wait

Watch and wait involves closely monitoring a patient's condition without giving any treatment until symptoms appear or change. Some people can manage their blood cancer — depending on the disease — with their doctors for years using a watch-and-wait approach. It is usually recommended for patients in early stages of indolent (slow-growing) or chronic forms of blood cancers.

Your doctor can monitor your condition for disease progression with regular physical exams and lab tests. You won't take any drugs or undergo any forms of treatment during this period.

Infections

Cancer patients, especially those undergoing chemotherapy, are more likely to get infections because of their weakened immune systems. Cancer and certain cancer therapies can damage the immune system by reducing the number of infection-fighting white blood cells. Patients with a low white blood cell count are at a higher risk of developing infections, and these infections can be more serious and harder to treat. In severe cases, infections can lead to death.

Pain

A cancer diagnosis does not mean that you will have pain. Still, many people with cancer do have pain at some point. Good pain control is part of proper cancer care.

Managing pain may result in better treatment outcomes, so patients should talk to their healthcare team about their pain right away. Left untreated, pain can:

Dating, Sexuality & Intimacy

As a young adult you may be dating, in a relationship, or married. Cancer can make navigating romantic relationships complicated.

Dating can be intimidating no matter your situation. Remember, every date before your diagnosis probably did not go perfectly. You may have bad dates after your diagnosis as well. You may also meet incredible, new people.

Paul

Thank you on behalf of the Freeman Wilner Family for this Honored Hero Award in memory of my father, Dr. Freeman Wilner, he was a hero to many.

Jonathan

I’ll start from the beginning.

In 2012, I was diagnosed with testicular cancer. I had surgery to remove the mixed germ cell tumor and then was on the road to recovery. My lymph nodes were larger than they should have been, so I opted to err on the side of caution and had a lymph node dissection to have them removed. That was an invasive surgery that kept me out of work and from doing any physical activity for over six months. Once I healed up, I went back to work as a full-time police officer in Worcester, MA.

Tim

I knew multiple myeloma (MM) was a blood cancer. After all, my mom was diagnosed with myeloma at 62 years old in 2005. It’s extremely rare that I should also be diagnosed in 2021, but it happened. There’s no strong data that shows that it’s hereditary at this point. But more doctors are seeing family members being diagnosed. It's also becoming one of the most diagnosed cancers among African Americans.

Harjeet

In May 2018, I moved to Edmonton from India with my husband hoping for a new career, a new life, and to start a family. Things were all right at first. Everything was going smoothly; I was living my normal life, but life had different plans.

In May 2019, I began experiencing high fevers with no other symptoms. Weeks passed, and I found myself in the emergency room numerous times. I was told that it was just a normal viral fever and took Tylenol to relieve it.

Addison

Florida is my happy place. It's where I've vacationed for over three decades. And when my husband and I had kids, it became our family's happy place too. Schedules are forbidden on vacation. We tell time by the sun as we sit on the beach with our feet in the sand, watching the tide roll in and out. While on vacation, we celebrate birthdays ― and they're done up big ― because that's the only way that we know how to celebrate birthdays ― BIG.

Covid-19 Vaccine Safety Among Blood Cancer Patients

Diagnosis

Diagnosing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and your ALL subtype usually involves a series of tests. An accurate diagnosis of the subtype is important. The exact diagnosis helps the doctor

Stem Cell Transplantation

Blood stem cells are produced in the marrow of the bones and can become any kind of blood cell the body needs. Stem cells are constantly dividing and maturing into different types of blood cells, replacing older and worn-out blood cells in the body. They produce billions of new blood cells every day. If the stem cells cannot make enough new blood cells, many serious health problems can occur. These problems may include infections, anemia or bleeding.

Low Blood Counts

Cancer therapy can lower your blood cell counts and chemotherapy especially can affect rapidly dividing bone marrow cells. This hinders the marrow's ability to supply new cells to the blood during treatment and for some time after. Patients receiving treatment for blood cancer can develop

Integrative Medicine and Complementary Therapies

Integrative medicine (IM) is a form of medical therapy that combines practices and treatments from complementary medicine (yoga, acupuncture and massage) with conventional medicine (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment and immunotherapy). Many cancer patients are using integrative medicine (IM) to help ease their cancer symptoms and reduce the side effects of cancer treatment. By integrating complementary therapies into conventional treatment plans, healthcare providers are better able to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of their patients.

New Drug Approval Expands Options for Patients with Triple-Class Refractory Multiple Myeloma

Chemotherapy and Drug Therapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill fast-growing cells throughout the body, including both cancer cells and normal, healthy cells. The damage to normal, healthy cells can cause side effects. Chemotherapy is typically given in cycles. Each cycle is made up of a certain number of days of treatment, followed by a certain number of days of rest. 

Treatment

It's important that your doctor is experienced in treating patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or has access to a CML specialist. Doctors who specialize in treating patients with CML are called “hematologist-oncologists.”  

Click the links below to read about types of treatment for CML.