Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 May 23;30(6):5214-5226.
doi: 10.3390/curroncol30060396.

Young Myeloma Patients: A Systematic Review of Manifestations and Outcomes

Mégane Tanguay  1   2 , Christophe Dagenais  2   3 , Richard LeBlanc  1   2 , Imran Ahmad  1   2 , Jean-Sébastien Claveau  1   2 , Jean Roy  1   2
Affiliations

Young Myeloma Patients: A Systematic Review of Manifestations and Outcomes

Mégane Tanguay et al. Curr Oncol. .

Abstract

Multiple myeloma usually affects older adults. However, younger patients constitute a significant subset as approximately 10% of cases occur in subjects younger than 50 years old. Young patients, who are underrepresented in the literature, are diagnosed during their most productive years of life, urging the need for tailored treatment approaches. This literature review aims to report recent studies specifically addressing young patients with a focus on characteristics at diagnosis, cytogenetics, treatments, and outcomes. We searched PubMed for studies involving young patients with multiple myeloma ≤50 years old. The time span of our literature review search was from 1 January 2010 to 31 December 2022. Overall, 16 retrospective studies were analyzed for this review. Young patients with multiple myeloma tend to have less advanced disease, more frequent light chain subtypes, and survive longer compared to their older counterparts. However, available studies included a limited number of patients; the newest revised international staging system was not used to stratify patients, cytogenetics varied from one cohort to another, and most patients did not receive contemporary triplet/quadruplet treatments. This review emphasizes the need to perform contemporary, large-scale retrospective studies to improve knowledge regarding the presentation and outcomes of young myeloma patients in the era of modern treatments.

Keywords: biology; multiple myeloma; outcome; young patients.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Consort diagram.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PubMed search strategy. * Truncation to find variations of a word.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Blimark C.H., Turesson I., Genell A., Ahlberg L., Björkstrand B., Carlson K., Forsberg K., Juliusson G., Linder O., Mellqvist U.-H., et al. Outcome and survival of myeloma patients diagnosed 2008–2015. Real-world data on 4904 patients from the Swedish Myeloma Registry. Haematologica. 2018;103:506–513. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2017.178103. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. National Cancer Institute SEER Cancer Statistics Factsheets: Multiple Myeloma. [(accessed on 3 January 2023)]; Available online: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/mulmy.html.
    1. Kyle R.A., Gertz M.A., Witzig T.E., Lust J.A., Lacy M.Q., Dispenzieri A., Fonseca R., Rajkumar S.V., Offord J.R., Larson D.R., et al. Review of 1027 patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. Mayo Clin. Proc. 2003;78:21–33. doi: 10.4065/78.1.21. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ludwig H., Bolejack V., Crowley J., Bladé J., Miguel J.S., Kyle R.A., Rajkumar S.V., Shimizu K., Turesson I., Westin J., et al. Survival and Years of Life Lost in Different Age Cohorts of Patients with Multiple Myeloma. J. Clin. Oncol. 2010;28:1599–1605. doi: 10.1200/JCO.2009.25.2114. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Van der Poel M.W.M., Oerlemans S., Schouten H.C., van de Poll-Franse L.V. Elderly multiple myeloma patients experience less deterioration in health-related quality of life than younger patients compared to a normative population: A study from the population-based PROFILES registry. Ann. Hematol. 2015;94:651–661. doi: 10.1007/s00277-014-2264-0. - DOI - PubMed

Publication types