According to researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, steroid pills are effective for improving the overall survival rate of individuals affected by multiple myeloma.
Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the plasma cells in the bone marrow.
James Berenson, M.D., lead author of the Southwest Oncology Group sponsored study and Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Bone Metastasis Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, said that prednisone use in response to an upfront chemotherapy may prolong lives of patients.
From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:
Multiple myeloma occurs when the body makes an abnormally high number of cancerous plasma cells. When healthy, plasma cells help to protect the body from infection and disease by forming antibodies that attack foreign substances. But when the body makes too many plasma cells that all make the same type of antibody, this leads to multiple myeloma, causing damage to bones, severe bone pain, an overabundance of calcium in the blood, anemia, and a weakening of the immune system. Today, most patients with multiple myeloma receive initial treatment with chemotherapy or with high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant and many respond to treatment and achieve remission. However, all patients ultimately relapse with incurable disease, leading physicians to search for ways to prolong remission for as long as possible by using some type of maintenance therapy.
Remissions are easy to attain and lives can be prolonged to a considerable extent when oral prednisone is administered in long-term after chemotherapy treatment, as per the involved researchers.
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