You might not need treatment if your cancer doesn’t cause symptoms. This type of cancer is called smoldering multiple myeloma. Instead, we’ll make appointments every few months to see if the disease gets worse. Your Cone Health doctor may also prescribe medicine to reduce the risk of the illness progressing.
You’ll need more treatment if you start to have symptoms of multiple myeloma, like:
- Bone pain, weakness, or fractures
- Low blood counts
- High blood calcium
- Pinched nerve in the spine
- Kidney damage
- Lung infection
Drugs are the most common multiple myeloma treatment. Your Cone Health oncologist may ask you to take three or four medications for several months. These may include:
- Immunotherapy to help your immune system fight cancer
- A drug that stops cancer from growing
- A steroid to kill cancer cells, reduce inflammation, and help other drugs work better
Chemotherapy has become less important than newer drugs in treating multiple myeloma. But if it’s part of your care plan, you’ll appreciate Cone Health’s comfortable chemotherapy suites with amenities. They help make infusion sessions go by faster.
Your best options for treating multiple myeloma might be in clinical trials. They study new approaches to cancer care, including precision medicine. Personalized care uses genetic information about your myeloma to find the best drugs for you.
Cone Health takes part in research studies to bring the latest cancer treatment options near you—whether you’re in Greensboro, High Point, Burlington, Asheboro, Reidsville, or elsewhere in North Carolina.
