Highlights
- •The prevalence of monoclonal gammopathies increases with age.
- •In the elderly, some comorbidities can mimic myeloma-related symptomatology.
- •It is crucial to establish the differential diagnosis to not overtreat MGUS/SMM.
- •Geriatric assessment may improve the management of MGUS/SMM elderly patients.
- •Further investigation is required to define the optimal treatment in high-risk SMM.
Abstract
Monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance (MGUS) is the most frequent plasma cell
disorder that commonly affects elderly patients. Although it is an asymptomatic condition,
as well as smoldering myeloma (SMM), the risk of progression to multiple myeloma requiring
therapy or other B-cell disorders varies greatly for individual patients, remaining
low for MGUS (1% per year), while higher and not uniform for SMM patients (10% per
year). This scenario implies some special considerations regarding assessment and
follow-up, especially in the elderly. In this review, we provide the updated diagnostic
criteria of monoclonal gammopathies proposed by the International Myeloma Working
Group (IMGW); the current recommendations for the assessment of asymptomatic plasma
cell disorders, with some concerns about the need of geriatric evaluation in the elderly
population, the importance of distinguishing myeloma-related symptomatology from signs
or symptoms caused by multiple chronic conditions typically found in the elderly.
Finally, the identification of predictor markers of progression has enabled a proposal
of risk-adapted follow-up strategies in MGUS and SMM that should be implemented in
clinical practice. Although the standard of care is observation for MGUS and SMM patients
as well, a recent randomized trial targeting high-risk SMM showed the clinical benefit
of early intervention. The change of the treatment paradigm is also very promising
and feasible for elderly patients, as long as a comprehensive geriatric assessment
is conducted to optimize early treatment and reach maximum benefit with minimum toxicity,
in other words, to ensure a better quality of life for these patients.
Abbreviations:
MGUS (Monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance), SMM (smoldering multiple myeloma), IMWG (International Myeloma Working Group (IMWG)), MDE (myeloma-defining event term), sFLC (serum free light chain), MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), BMPCs (bone marrow plasma cells), GA (geriatric assessment), VTD (venous thromboembolic disease), MGAPN (Monoclonal gammopathy-associated peripheral neuropathy), MGRS (Monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance), WM (Waldënstrom's macroglobulinemia), PN (peripheral neuropathy)Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: June 12, 2018
Accepted:
May 23,
2018
Received in revised form:
May 9,
2018
Received:
September 22,
2017
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 European Federation of Internal Medicine. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
