On 4/5/2008
ja83ja wrote:
My friend was recently diagnosed with MM. He just got done doing 10 treatments of radiation and now he has one of his first follow up appointments with his oncologist. His radioligist mentioned bone marrow transplant and chemo already. He's pretty confused on what questions to ask. Can anyone give me any suggestions of what he should ask?
Thank you in advance.
First of all, I'm so sorry for what you and your friend are going through. It is very kind of you to be trying to help him navigate the complex maze of MM treatment. This is the most confusing sort of cancer I've ever seen, but admittedly there may be more complicated ones.
It sounds a bit strange to me that his doctors went straight to radiation. He he have MM with a plastocytoma rather than diffuse bone marrow involvement? Otherwise, I would think they would want to induce him with a chemo regimen involving either Velcade, Revlimid or Thalidomide.
In other words, did he have a single tumor outside of the bone marrow? From what I've learned, it is unusual to do radiation alone, although radiation is good for the elimination of pain, as MM cells are very sensitive to radiation.
Is his doctor up to date on the new meds that have been introduced to fight Myeloma over the past few years: Velcade, Revlimid and Thalidomide, often in combination with steroids (Dexamethasone, Prednisone), and older agents such as cyclophosphamide and melphalen.
Please stick around here, because I'm new here too and there are some fantastic people here, and they are very wise!
Hugs,
Mike