World Multiple Myeloma Day

In Spain, 40 new cases are diagnosed per million inhabitants per year. At the moment it is a disease that is difficult to cure. Today is World Multiple Myeloma Day (September 5), a malignant blood disease whose treatment has been revolutionized in the last 15 years.

Every year in our country more than 2,000 people are diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer that is currently difficult to cure. Multiple myeloma predominantly affects elderly people (half of the patients are over 65 years of age).

Multiple myeloma is treated with a combination of disease-specific drugs. In young patients, an autologous bone marrow transplant is usually performed in addition. With all this, the disease is controlled, but not cured. Patients have constant relapses, so treatment has to be repeated or alternative treatments have to be sought. As Dr. Albert Oriol, hematologist at the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) Badalona, researcher at the Josep Carreras Leukemia Research Institute and expert hematologist who focuses his research on multiple myeloma, explains: "The objective is to have the disease under control for as long as possible and free of symptoms".