Radiological outcome of bone disease in multiple myeloma patients pre- and post therapy: A single center experience

Abstract

Objectives: To find any correlation between the clinical response as per International Working Myeloma Group (IWMG) response criteria and the radiological response at the end of treatment.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted, total of 39 patients whom diagnosed with multiple myeloma (MM) between January 2010 and December 2018 and fulfilled the study criteria were included.

Results: The high sensitivity and specificity of positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) in detecting osteolytic myeloma lesions in the bones was strongly emphasized in our study. Follow up PET/CT, we found that while 17 patients showed complete remission in PET/CT, and 14 of these of patients demonstrated a complete clinical response at end of therapy assessment.

Conclusion: Although we did not find a statistically significant correlation between the response versus metabolic activity and the number of bone/bone marrow lesions, however, our study was limited by the absence of clear criteria for defining disease response in PET/CT in MM patients. Further prospective analysis would be needed to establish a defined criterion.

Keywords: PET scan; bone disease; multiple myeloma; outcome.

Figure 1

- Distribution of patient responses during second positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET CT) scan and end of study. The x-axis represents the clinical responses at the end of the study and y-axis represents no-of patient’s responses during second PET scan.

Figure 2

- Distribution of patient responses during third positron emission tomography computed tomography (PET CT) scan and end of study. The x-axis represents the clinical responses at the end of the study and y-axis represents no-of patient’s responses during third PET scan.

Figure 3

- Comparison of Maximum SUV values with clinical disease status at the end of the study.