We’ll help you understand multiple myeloma.

Explore treatment types

There’s more than one way to treat MM.

Your doctor will recommend systemic or local therapies, sometimes in combination, depending on your cancer type, age, overall health, and kidney function.

• Systemic treatments: These include drug therapies that target cancer cells throughout the body. A systemic treatment plan could include up to four different types of medication
• Local treatments: These include surgery and radiation therapy that target a specific part of the body. Typically used if your cancer is not too advanced

Treating MM is challenging because it’s difficult to successfully destroy all the myeloma cells. There is a chance that some will remain and will start growing again.

Remember to ask about the side effects, risks, and benefits of any cancer treatment.

Targeted therapy

Targeted therapy is designed to act on specific features of cancer cells, such as proteins or gene changes identified through biomarker testing, although it can also affect some normal cells. It’s also called personalized or individualized therapy and is used alone or with chemo.

Targeted therapy can be given as a pill, infusion (IV), or injection. Here are some of the kinds you may hear about.

• Proteasome inhibitors: These therapies help stop cell division in tumor cells
• Antibody drug conjugates: These target specific parts of cancer cells with a medication that enters the cell and binds to its protein (or receptor), thereby killing it
• Nuclear export inhibitors: These therapies target specific proteins in cancer cells and keep them from leaving the cell which causes the cancer cell to die

Immunotherapy

A therapy that boosts your body’s own immune system to fight cancer or helps train the immune system to attack certain cancer cells. Here are some of the kinds you may hear about.

• Monoclonal antibodies: These are man-made cancer fighting cells that attach to a specific target on MM cells. They may be used alone or with otYher treatments and are given as an IV or injection
• Bispecific antibodies (BsAbs): These are also man-made cancer fighting cells. Unlike monoclonal antibodies, BsAbs are able to attach to 2 specific targets. For example, one type of BsAbs medication attaches to immune system cells and myeloma cells. This brings both types together and helps the immune system cells destroy the myeloma cells
• CAR T-cell therapy (chimeric antigen receptor): A sample of your blood is taken and put through a lab process to separate out T cells. The cells are then changed in a way that allows them to attach to cancer cells before being put back into your body. The T cells then boost the immune system and help it destroy cancer cells
• Immunomodulatory medicines (IMiDs): These medicines are taken as pills that directly affect the immune system. They are taken daily with regular breaks each month. Doctors may also prescribe blood thinners or aspirin with IMiDs because they may increase the risk of blood clots

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy, or chemo, uses a combination of two or three powerful medications to attack and stop cancer cells from growing. It can also kill some healthy cells, which is why people may experience side effects, like hair loss.

Typically a fluid delivered into a vein (IV), it may also be given as an injection or pills.

Chemo is used before stem cell transplants but is otherwise used infrequently for MM.

Stem cell transplant

This common MM treatment uses high-dose chemotherapy to first kill cancer cells in the bone marrow. Then new, healthy, blood-forming stem cells are given through an IV infusion.

The transplant may use either a patient’s own healthy stem cells removed before chemo (autologous) or less commonly, someone else’s stem cells (allogenic).

Surgery

Surgery for MM is used to:

• Remove plasma cell tumors from the body if present
• Correct spinal cord compression; may be used with radiation therapy
• To attach plates or rods to support bones or to prevent breaks

Radiation therapy

Radiation therapy uses high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells. It may be used if medication or other treatments haven’t worked or to treat certain tumors.

In most cases, external beam therapy is used. Doctors use a machine outside the body to beam radiation directly to affected areas.

Radiation can also be used to treat bones that cause pain, are at risk of breaking, or have been damaged by MM.

Clinical trials

If available treatments aren’t a fit for your particular cancer, participating in a clinical trial may be right for your situation. Clinical trials study the safety and efficacy of potential new medicines, including cancer treatments. Your doctor can tell you about the benefits and risks, and whether taking part in a clinical trial is right for you.

Explore clinical trials