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Query: UMLS:C0026764 (multiple myeloma)
 36,148 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Multiple myeloma is very frequently associated with anemia which has the character of hypoproliferative anemia of chronic diseases. In this type of anemia there is often insufficient production of endogenous erythropoietin. According to literature pharmacological doses of erythropoietin result in the increase of blood hemoglobin concentration. Erythropoietin (Eprex Cilag) was given to 11 patients whose hemoglobin concentration in blood was lower than 100 g/l. 10 patients could be evaluated at the end of the study. Within the first month all patients were given erythropoietin in the dose of 150 U/kg 3 times a week. The dose was doubled, when the blood hemoglobin concentration did not increase by more than 10 g/l within the first month. In patients with hemoglobin level above 120 g/l we were trying to find the individual maintenance dose. In patients who had not reached a blood hemoglobin concentration increase of at least 20 g/l, as compared with the initial level, further erythropoietin administration was stopped. The concentration of hemoglobin increased of 20 g/l in 8 (80%) out of 10 patients evaluated. All 5 patients who responded within the first month, had had pretreatment concentration of endogenous erythropoietin below 60 U/l. Three other patients had not been responding before their dose of erythropoietin was increased in the 2nd and 3rd months of therapy. The therapy response appeared only in the 2nd and the 3rd months of treatment. These 3 patients had higher pretreatment concentrations of endogenous erythropoietin, from 100 to 350 U/l. During the treatment no adverse effects of erythropoietin were observed. Erythropoietin is a useful drug for anemic patients with the diagnosis of multiple myeloma. According to the results mentioned above and also according to the data from literature it is evident that in patients with the endogenous blood erythropoietin value below 100 U/l it is possible to expect a sudden rise in hemoglobin concentration already within the first month. Patients with a higher concentration of endogenous erythropoietin (100 to 500 U/l) respond to the therapy less frequently and for the increase in hemoglobin it is necessary to give higher doses of erythropoietin. Patients with the initial value of erythropoietin above 500 U/l are not likely to respond.
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PMID:Therapy of anemia in patients with multiple myeloma. 883 22

Cytokines are involved in hematopoiesis by regulating proliferation, differentiation and cellular functions of various lineages of hematopoietic cells. There is an increasing range of clinical conditions in which cytokines are involved as therapeutic agents. One of the most advanced and successful applications is the stimulation of hematopoiesis by the colony stimulating factors (GM-CSF and G-CSF) and erythropoietin. Hematopoietic growth factors are effective in accelerating recovery from neutropenia after chemotherapy and bone marrow transplantation and in reducing incidence of infections. Interferon alpha (IFN-alpha) proved a useful therapeutic agent for chronic myelogenous and hairy cell leukemias as well as for multiple myeloma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Interleukin 2 is the only cytokine apart from IFN-alpha accepted as antineoplastic agent. It may be useful as adjuvant therapy in the hematological malignancies. It may be supposed that in the near future new recombinant cytokines will be introduced in the treatment of blood diseases.
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PMID:Cytokines in the treatment of hematological disorders: recent progress and perspectives. 887 63

Growth factors or humoral agents can support haemopoiesis in various bone marrow disorders. They have the ability to act on multiple cell lineages and in myeloid cells, and the potential to act on the neoplastic equivalent of normal cells. Anaemia is a common feature of multiple myeloma seen in at least two-thirds of patients at presentation. Erythropoietin is increasingly being used with variable effect for the treatment of this anaemia, especially in cases associated with renal failure and in patients in whom blood transfusion may be undesirable or contraindicated. We describe a patient treated with recombinant erythropoietin who developed fulminating malignant transformation. The demonstration of erythropoietin receptors on a human myeloma cell line and the occurrence of the rare complication of plasma cell leukaemia in our patient stresses the need for caution and invites detailed clinical and laboratory studies before its general use.
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PMID:Does erythropoietin accelerate malignant transformation in multiple myeloma? 913 33

The efficacy and safety of recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) were tested when given subcutaneously (s.c.) in an escalating dose of 2000-10,000 units (U) daily in 60 patients with cancer-related anaemia (CRA). A positive response, defined as an increase in haemoglobin more than 2 g/dl and independence of blood transfusions was observed in 23 of 48 evaluable patients (48%) within a median of 8 wk. In detail, rhEPO corrected anaemia in 11 of 14 patients (79%) with malignant lymphoma, in 8 of 15 patients (53%) with multiple myeloma and in 4 of 10 patients (40%) with a solid tumour. The median dose of rhEPO in successful cases was 5000 U daily. Four patients with agnogenic myeloid metaplasia and 5 with myelodysplastic disorder failed to respond to rhEPO. No patient had any severe side effects. Pretreatment serum erythropoietin levels appeared to be a weak predictor for response to rhEPO treatment. In conclusion, rhEPO seems to be safe and effective in correcting CRA in certain groups of patients.
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PMID:Recombinant human erythropoietin in the treatment of cancer-related anaemia. 918 36

Recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) was administered to 37 patients with advanced, transfusion-dependent and chemo-resistant multiple myeloma (MM), at the fixed dose of 10,000/U s.c., 3 times a week, for 2 months. Thirteen patients (35.1%) achieved a significant response in terms of complete abolition of red cell transfusions. Factors significantly predictive of response were: a) inappropriate production of endogenous EPO, as expressed by a reduced observed/predicted ratio; b) presence of a consistent number of circulating erythroid precursors BFU-E; c) low serum levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and interleukin-1 (IL-1), cytokines with inhibitory activity on erythropoiesis; d) a single line of previously received chemotherapy. Renal failure, bone marrow plasma cell infiltration, serum levels of IL-6 and other main clinical and laboratory parameters did not affect significantly the response to r-EPO. High fluorescence reticulocytes (HFR) and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) values were useful to detect an early stimulation of erythropoiesis in responders, while a high percentage of circulating hypochromic erythrocytes (HE), as assessed by an automated counter, identified those patients developing functional iron deficiency during r-EPO treatment. We conclude that about one-third of severely anemic patients with advanced MM, unresponsive to chemotherapy, may benefit by r-EPO therapy. The clinical management of these patients can be accomplished using non-invasive parameters, such as sTfR, HFR and HE.
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PMID:Clinical results of recombinant erythropoietin in transfusion-dependent patients with refractory multiple myeloma: role of cytokines and monitoring of erythropoiesis. 922 86

The median of survival among patients with multiple myeloma (MM) is about 30 months from the onset of treatment. Tumour burden and a range of other parameters, such as C-reactive protein levels, the plasma cell labelling index and beta2-microglobulin levels, can be used to assign patients to favourable and unfavourable prognostic groups. Conventional chemotherapy consists of melphalan and prednisone, and is as effective as moderately intensive cytotoxic drug regimens. Although second-line chemotherapy is initially effective, all patients eventually die. Maintenance therapy will interferon-alpha prolongs the plateau phase of the disease, but its effects on overall survival are minimal. One of the promising developments in the treatment of MM has been the introduction of high dosage chemotherapy, which can now be safely administered when stem cells are used for haematological recovery. Autologous bone marrow transplantation has been shown to produce a significant improvement in survival compared with conventional therapy. Several studies are under way that are examining the effects of multiple courses of high dosage chemotherapy together with peripheral stem cell support. Purging of autologous stem cell harvests will be performed in the near future to minimise contamination with myeloma cells. It is now feasible to use high dosage chemotherapy, with the support of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor-stimulated whole blood, in selected elderly patients. Besides the promising development of intensive therapy, a number of other treatment strategies have emerged, including treatment with monoclonal antibodies against interleukin-6 and multidrug resistance-modulating agents. Better supportive care can be provided for some patients by using epoetin (recombinant human erythropoietin), and the sequelae of lytic bone lesions can be ameliorated through the use of bisphosphonates.
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PMID:Treatment of multiple myeloma in elderly patients. New developments. 925 78

Conventional chemotherapy for multiple myeloma results in low complete response rates, and disease progression usually occurs within a couple of years. High-dose chemotherapy with autotransplantation, which has been shown to result in encouraging complete remission rates over several years in phase II studies, was recently shown in a randomized study to be superior to conventional therapy. Eventual tumor recurrence is a problem after autografting, and the development of novel maintenance chemotherapy or immunotherapy strategies is necessary to eliminate minimal residual disease. Although allogeneic transplantation cures a small proportion of patients, high transplant-related mortality and relapse rates hamper survival. Development of novel conditioning regimens and means to harness the graft-versus-myeloma effect without the associated morbidity of graft-versus-host disease are necessary to improve success rates. Supportive therapy, mainly bisphosphonates to delay progression of bone disease and improve bone density and erythropoietin to improve hemoglobin levels, also plays an important role in the overall management. This article reviews therapeutic advances in multiple myeloma from the 1996 literature.
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PMID:Advances in the treatment of multiple myeloma. 926 58

The prognosis of patients with IgD myeloma is poorest among all types of multiple myeloma. We report a case of a patient with IgD myeloma who survived for an extraordinarily long period post-diagnosis (65 months). According to the new risk grouping of IgD myeloma (Shimamoto Y. et al., Eur. J. Haematol. 47, 262 (1991), he was classified as being in the high-risk group, with a zero percent expected 5-yr survival. Nevertheless, he survived for 65 months. We discuss the usefulness of interferon-alpha and erythropoietin for the treatment of IgD myeloma.
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PMID:Long-term survival in a case of high-risk type IgD myeloma; a possibility of effectiveness of interferon-alpha and erythropoietin. 928 19

This review has two objects: a brief recapitulation of the biological background of erythropoietin (EPO), and a review of its clinical utilization in hematology. EPO, both in its naturally occurring and recombinant form (rH-EPO), is a single chain glycoprotein with an approximate molecular weight of 30.000 to 34.000 kD. Its heavy glycosilation is essential for its activity in vivo, since asialoEPO is readily cleared by the heptic asialoglycoprotein receptor. This impedes the recombinant molecule's synthesis in biologic cultures other than mammalian cells (Chinese hamster's ovary cells), and inevitably increases costs. If in vitro glycosilation of E. coli-derived rH-EPO could be achieved, the clinical utilization of the product would be considerably enhanced, most especially when very high doses are necessary, as discussed later. There is no antigenic diversity between natural and recombinant EPO, so that out of the enormous clinical experience only one single case of immunization has been recorded. Almost paradoxically there are however three published cases of pure red cell aplasia (PRCA) caused by immunization against autologous EPO. It is now established that in adults EPO is synthetized in renal peritubular interstitial cells, although some residual activity remains in the liver. Hypoxia results in a rapid induction of EPO expression, although the role of the oxygen sensor system is still debated. Cellular targets are notoriously erythroid progenitors and precursors (BFU-E, CFU-E, early and intermediate erythroblasts). The global erythropoietic activity resulted in various effects (proliferation, differentiation, survival), but most probably each single effect is integrated with and complementary of the others. The utilization of rH-EPO in hematologic diseases came much later than its dramatic success in renal anemia. A variety of tools useful for assessing the possible beneficial effects of rH-EPO in clinical hematology has been proposed, among which a low level of endogenous EPO is a good predictor for therapeutic success. 'Hemopathic' anemia can be subdivided into three categories: patients with normal erythropoiesis due to inadequate EPO production (anemia of prematurity), patients with depressed but nonclonal erythropoiesis (chemotherapy, lymphoid malignancies such as multiple myeloma-MM and chronic lymphatic leukemia-CCL) and patients with at least partially clonal anemia, such as paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH), hemoglobinopaties, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and others. Results in the first category of patients are, as expected, prompt and satisfactory with physiologic doses. Although therapeutic strategy for MM is moving fast to curative intents, the utilization of rH-EPO is indicated for the control of anemia in conservatively-treated patients. In the third category the most important and controversial area is MDS. Significant erythropoietic results are generally obtained in about 20% of patients; however, the association with G-CSF has considerably enhanced the response rate. In the field of bone marrow transplantation there is an inadequate production of endogenous EPO in the allogeneic setting, and randomized studies have shown the benefits of rH-EPO in this situation. However, the most important results have been obtained in post-major-ABO incompatible PRCA, when the removal of the recipient's isohemagglutinins does not resolve the anemia. High and very high doses of rH-EPO (even over 500 UI/kg/day for 2-4 weeks) may resolve this occasionally quite refractory condition. Although extremely expensive, this treatment may be life-saving when an otherwise successful allogeneic transplant is at the risk of failure because of this relatively uncommon but severe immunohematologic complication.
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PMID:[Erythropoietin: biochemical characteristics, biologic effects, indications and results of use in hematology]. 948 78

The Golgi enzyme alpha2,6-sialyltransferase modifies glycoconjugates by adding sialic acid. In lymphocytes, different epitopes that result from this modification have been identified by the B cell-related CDw75, CDw76, HB4 or HB6 Ab. We previously described positive staining with these Ab of a highly transferrin receptor-positive (CD71) cell type in the bone marrow of multiple myeloma patients. These cells were distinct from plasma cells, but did contain Ig of the same isotype and idiotype as seen in the plasma cells. We postulated a precursor role for this cell type in myeloma. Here, we report that this CD71+ (HB4/HB6/CDw75/CDw76)+ cell is an erythroid precursor cell instead. RT-PCR did not detect Ig mRNA, and from immuno electron microscopy Ig appeared to be endocytosed rather than synthesized by these cells. At their cell surface the erythroid/megakaryocytic markers CD36 and CD41, and the erythroid-specific glycophorin A can be detected, while haemoglobin can be detected antigenically in the cytoplasm. Finally, purified cells proliferate in vitro upon addition of erythropoietin. Uptake of Ig could be explained by the presence of Fc gammaRIII(CD16), which has also been found on other haematopoietic precursor cells.
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PMID:Putative myeloma precursor cells expressing 2,6 sialic acid-modified antigens actually belong to the erythroid lineage. 959 73


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