A team of researchers led by Constantinos Koshiaris from the University of Oxford have recently published a study that investigated the best way to identify multiple myeloma through blood tests. You can read the full source paper here, at the British Journal of General Practise.
About Multiple Myeloma
Multiple myeloma is a form of bone marrow cancer. Often, multiple myeloma affects many areas of the body, such as the skull, spine, ribs, and pelvis. However, it may cause very few symptoms in the early stages of the disease, and often these are non-specific. According to the NHS, some people with multiple myeloma may experience symptoms such as aching bones, weak bones, tiredness and shortness of breath (caused by anaemia), frequent infections, and kidney problems, amongst others. It takes many patients a long time to achieve a correct diagnosis, and, according to the source study, patients with multiple myeloma face “the longest interval from initial symptom reporting to diagnosis of all common cancers.”
The Study Background
In an effort to address this problem, the recent study, called Early detection of multiple myeloma in primary care using blood tests: a case–control study in primary care, investigated which blood tests and blood test combinations are the most useful for indicating whether or not a patient has multiple myeloma.
The Study Methods
To do this, the researchers carried out a matched case-control study using data from the Clinical Practice Research Datalink. They looked at the symptoms and blood test results of 2,703 patients up to five years before diagnosis and those of 12,157 matched controls. The data was then statistically analysed using likelihood ratios.
What the Researchers Found
As Koshiaris explains in an article published on In-Cyprus, they found that the most effective method was “a combination of two simple blood tests.” These are a full blood count, and an inflammatory marker; together, the combination was found to identify more than 93% of patients with myeloma. Koshiaris said abnormalities found in these parameters may appear at an early stage of the disease progression, “up to two years before diagnosis.” Both of these tests are commonly used in the UK, which means that if this method of identifying multiple myeloma is taken on and made into an approved guideline, the method could be implemented in the UK almost immediately, although the process may not be as fast in other countries.
More detailed information about the findings of the study can be found here, and you can read Koshiaris’s full interview in In-Cyrus by clicking here.
