My sister was diagnosed less than 2 years ago. The underwent autologous and she's been doing really well. About a week ago, we noticed some swelling of her left eye accompanied by mild headache. She went to see her doctor and did some test. MRI of the head showed that there are 4 metastasized lesions. Is multiple myeloma affects the brain too? What are the treatment and the survival rates?
Thanks for your post. I am the research coordinator for the MM program here at HCI. As with any cancer, it is possible for myeloma to metastasize to the brain. However, it sounds like your sister has a plasmacytoma above the eye and lytic lesions in her skull, which is different (and better) from having the disease actually within the brain. It's hard to judge without having her medical records for review. Provided that the disease hasn't metastasized to the brain, it is completely possible to bring the myeloma back into remission, but we would need to know much more about your sister's disease, current tumor burden, cytogenetics, risk profile, etc to be able to offer intelligent probabilities for prolonged survival. Rest assured, though, that there are definitely treatment options available. I hope this helps. Take care, and the best of luck to you both.
