Multiple Myeloma Timeline

Overview

1990's

Late 2000's

TODAY

The treatment of multiple myeloma has progressed significantly over the last couple of decades. This interactive timeline takes you through the typical treatment experience at three points in time (1990’s, late 2000’s, today) to demonstrate what it may have been like for patients diagnosed during each period.

In 1993, fewer than 1/3 of multiple myeloma patients survived five years.

U.S mortality rates from multiple myeloma peaked in the mid-1990s.

African American men are more likely to develop multiple myeloma then their white - or female - counterparts.

Since the mid-1990s, autologous stem cell transplantation had been considered a cornerstone for the treatment of younger patients with multiple myeloma.

I just learned that I have multiple myeloma and, according to my doctor, I might have less than five years to live. To treat the disease, he mentioned the possibility of a stem cell transplant. But he noted that while they are generally effective in some patients, they can be costly and do carry possible side effects like any treatment. I'm not sure I want to go that route. If only there were more options...

•  1/3 of patients survived five years
•  Multiple myeloma mortality rates peaked
•  African american men more likely to have multiple myeloma
•  Autologous stem cell transplantation introduced

Not too many people with cancer use the words ‘luck’ and ‘diagnosis’ in the same sentence. But I really do believe I’m lucky to have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma now, when new options are available – versus just a year or two ago, when my outlook would likely not have been as hopeful. According to my hematologist, new medications available for patients like me help manage my disease – and, maybe most importantly – give me the potential to live longer.

•  Novel therapies treat multiple myeloma in a variety of ways
•  Survival rates 7% higher than five years prior
•  People with multiple myeloma continue to benefit from stem cell transplant

Novel therapies treat multiple myeloma in a variety of ways, attacking cancer cells and bolstering the body's own defense system to fight the disease.

Estimated five-year survival rates for patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2008 were more then 7% higher than for patients diagnosed five years prior.

The estimated three-year survival rate of a multiple myeloma patient that received an autologous stem cell transplant between 2008 and 2012 was 72.1%

I was shocked and scared when my doctor told me I had multiple myeloma. As a 70-year old black man, I am, as I've learned, more likely to get the disease. Still, I'd never even heard of multiple myeloma - and I certainly didn't know anything about how it's treated. Boy was I relieved to learn how far the care of this disease has come in the past 10 years and that nearly half of all multiple myeloma patients today live five or more years. And that's important to me - I still have a lot of living to do.

•  Nearly half expected to live five+ years
•  Doublet and triplet therapy combinations
•  Five common drug classes to treat multiple myeloma
•  Stem cell transplantation continues to be used in younger patients
•  Transforming to be more of a chronic disease in some patients

Today, nearly half of all multiple myeloma patients are expected to live five years or more.

Doublet and triplet therapy combinations are often used to improve patient outcomes. Researchers are continuing to explore the most effective and tolerable treatment combinations for multiple myeloma.

There are now five common drug classes for the treatment of multiple myeloma: immunomodulatory drugs, proteasome inhibitors, chemotherapy, histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDAC inhibitors), and steroids.

Autologous stem cell transplant is still commonly used to treat multiple myeloma. Autologous stem cell transplantation has been demonstrated to improve progression-free survival, but the treatment is associated with significant tolerability considerations.

As survival rates continue to improve and more novel therapies are introduced, multiple myeloma, for some patients, has been transformed into a chronic disease that can be managed for longer periods or time.