MYELOMA BASICS:
The Statistics

How Common is Multiple Myeloma? Multiple myeloma is the second most prevalent blood cancer and represents approximately 1% of all cancers and 2% of all cancer deaths.

Although the peak age of onset of multiple myeloma is 65 to 70 years of age, recent statistics indicate both increasing incidence and earlier age of onset. More than 40,000 Americans currently have multiple myeloma, and over 14,000 new cases of multiple myeloma are diagnosed each year in the United States.

Multiple myeloma is approximately twice as common in males as females. African Americans and Native Pacific Islanders have the highest reported incidence of this disease and Asians the lowest. Results of a recent study found the incidence of multiple myeloma in African Americans to be 9.5/100,000 and Caucasian Americans 4.1/100,000. Among African Americans, multiple myeloma is one of the top ten leading causes of cancer death.

What Causes Multiple Myeloma? Although a tremendous amount of work has gone into the search for the cause of multiple myeloma, to date no cause for this disease has been identified. However, the search for a cause has suggested possible associations between multiple myeloma and a decline in the immune system, genetic factors, certain occupations, exposure to certain chemicals, exposure to radiation, and, most recently, a virus.

What Suggests That Multiple Myeloma May be Associated With a Decline in The Immune System or Genetic Factors? Because the peak age for multiple myeloma is among the elderly it is thought that susceptibility may increase with the aging process and reduction in immune surveillance of evolving cancer or the myeloma may result with a lifelong accumulation of toxic insults or antigenic challenges. The higher incidence of multiple myeloma in African Americans and the much less common occurrence in Asians in addition to a slight increased risk among children and siblings of those with myeloma suggest genetic factors.

What Occupations and Types of Exposures Have Been Associated With Multiple Myeloma? Agricultural occupations, petroleum workers, workers in leather industries, and cosmetologists with exposure to herbicides, insecticides, petroleum products, heavy metals, plastics, and various dusts including asbestos seem to have a higher-than-average chance of multiple myeloma. In addition, individuals exposed to large amounts of radiation, such as survivors of the atomic bomb explosions in Japan, have an increased risk for multiple myeloma.

What Virus Has Been Linked to Multiple Myeloma? In 1997, researchers identified Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV) in certain bone marrow cells of 15 patients with multiple myeloma. The possibility that KSHV is linked with multiple myeloma continues to be an area of research by many investigators.

What Does This Mean for Me? It is important to remember that in most cases, individuals who develop multiple myeloma have no clear risk factors. Multiple myeloma may be the result of several factors acting together.