Multiple Myeloma: an 11-year of Experience in South Egypt Cancer Institute

Background and objectives: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a malignant neoplasm of plasma cells accounting for approximately 10% of all hematologic cancers. The rates of MM vary among different populations and findings on racial differences in survival in MM have been inconclusive. Our aim is to investigate the demographic data with reviewing the different lines of treatment and to assess the outcome and survival of the patients treated from MM at a single institution over an 11-year period.
Methods: This retrospective study involved 70 patients with MM who were treated from January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2018 in the Medical Oncology Department at the South Egypt Cancer Institute (SECI).
Results: The median age of patients was 57 years. The most presenting symptoms were bone pain which occurred in 90% of patients followed by anemia, hypercalcemia and renal impairment which occurred in 64%, 27% and 21% of patients respectively. Patients who received bortezomib based regimens had higher median progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) compared with conventional treatment as the median PFS was 30 months (P=0.051) while OS was 37 months (P=0.011) in patients received bortezomib based regimens.
Conclusions: Multiple Myeloma in Egyptian patients is more common in younger age. Bortezomib based regimen gives survival outcome better than conventional treatment.