Duration of Survival in Multiple Myeloma

Abstract

Data on 238 residents of Brooklyn, whose first diagnosis of multiple myeloma was made during 1943–52, were obtained from hospital records. Diagnosis was confirmed by pathologic diagnosis made on autopsy, marrow biopsy, or other biopsy, or by radiologic diagnosis supported by either serum hyperglobulinemia or Bence Jones proteinuria. Follow-up to April 15, 1958, was complete for 95.8 percent (228) of the patients. The life-table method and a modified maximum likelihood method applied to the log-normal distribution were used to analyze survival trends. The median duration of survival for the total series of patients after their first admission to the hospital was 3.5 months. Sixteen percent of the patients survived longer than 18 months after admission and 8 percent survived for 3 years. The median duration of symptoms prior to diagnosis was 5 months. Median durations of survival were somewhat longer for females than for males, for younger patients than for older patients, and for patients who had symptoms for more than a year prior to diagnosis than for patients with a shorter duration of symptoms. Negro patients had about the same median and mean durations of survival as white patients. The median duration of survival for Jewish women was more than twice as long as for non-Jewish women. No differences according to religion were noted for males.