Serving Family, Church, Neighborhood, and Community.
About Multiple Myeloma
What Is Multiple Myeloma?
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow plasma cells. Other names for the disease are "myeloma" and "plasma cell myeloma." Plasma cells make antibodies against infectious agents such as viruses and bacteria. A cancer cell or malignant plasma cell is called a myeloma cell. Myeloma is called “multiple” because there are frequently multiple patches or areas in bone marrow where it grows.
HOW MULTIPLE MYELOMA IMPACTS THE BODY
Multiple myeloma affects the places where bone marrow is active in an adult. Most common sites include the bones of the spine, skull, pelvis, rib cage, and the areas around the shoulders and hips.
Multiple myeloma is a type of blood cancer that affects the immune system and starts in specific white blood cells called plasma cells. These cells are found mostly in bone marrow and are an important part of the immune system because they produce a number of antibodies used by our bodies to fight infection.
Damage to the DNA can turn plasma cells into cancerous cells known as myeloma cells. Over a period of time, these myeloma cells multiply and spread through the bone marrow. Instead of producing normal antibodies, they produce large numbers of a single antibody referred to as monoclonal proteins or M-proteins. However, this antibody has no function in the human body. This eventually leads to the symptoms associated with multiple myeloma.
​
Did you know that Black men and women are diagnosed 2.5 and 3.5 times more under the age of 50 than their white counterparts?2 These facts should make you sit up, take notice, and add multiple myeloma to the list of “Black illnesses.”
​