When developing a treatment plan, providers must consider the patient’s age and overall health, disease stage, tumor size and symptoms present. Based on this, you may benefit from one or more of the following:
Special cancer-fighting medication that you take orally or that is administered intravenously (IV). When taken, chemotherapy enters the bloodstream and travels throughout the body, seeking cancerous cells to destroy.
Your body’s immune system receives a boost to help it fight cancer on its own. A common immunotherapy treatment for multiple myeloma is CAR T-cell therapy. With this treatment, immune cells (T-cells) are genetically altered to recognize and attack cancer cells.
Antibiotics help fight infection. Medications help reduce pain. If other therapies cause unwanted side effects, prescription medications can offset these symptoms.
Over a series of appointments, high-energy radiation gets aimed at the cancerous site to destroy cancerous cells. While often reserved for solitary plasmacytomas, radiation can fight off cancer that resists other treatment methods. Learn more about our services by visiting our Radiation Oncology website.
Following chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy, healthy cells are transplanted to the diseased areas. These stem cells may come from the patient or a donor. Once transplanted, the healthy stem cells encourage more stem cell growth. These healthy stem cells may also fight cancerous cells.
When myeloma damages the spine and results in paralysis, numbness or severe weakness, surgery may help. In these cases, the goal is not to remove the cancer but to improve quality of life. Occasionally, a single plasmacytoma is removed surgically. At the UK Markey Cancer Center, surgeons use minimally invasive techniques when possible, including robotic surgery.
