Current Clinical Trials

If a solitary lytic lesion of plasma cells is found on skeletal survey in an otherwise asymptomatic patient, and a bone marrow examination from an uninvolved site contains less than 5% of plasma cells, the patient may have an isolated plasmacytoma of bone.[1] Magnetic resonance imaging scans of the total spine may identify other bony lesions.[2] The survival rate of patients with isolated plasmacytoma of bone treated with radiation of the lesion is greater than 50% at 10 years, which is much better than the survival with disseminated multiple myeloma.[3] Most patients will eventually develop disseminated disease and require chemotherapy; almost 50% will do so within 2 years of diagnosis;[1,2] however, patients with serum paraprotein or Bence Jones protein who have complete disappearance of these proteins after radiation therapy may be expected to remain free of disease for prolonged periods.[2,4] Patients who progress to multiple myeloma tend to have good responses to chemotherapy with a median survival of 63 months after progression.[2,4]

Standard treatment options:

1. Radiation of the lesion.
2. If the monoclonal (or myeloma) protein (M protein) increases and other evidence of symptomatic multiple myeloma occurs, chemotherapy is required.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry that are now accepting patients with isolated plasmacytoma of bone ¹. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site ².

References

1. Dimopoulos MA, Moulopoulos LA, Maniatis A, et al.: Solitary plasmacytoma of bone and asymptomatic multiple myeloma. Blood 96 (6): 2037-44, 2000.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
2. Liebross RH, Ha CS, Cox JD, et al.: Solitary bone plasmacytoma: outcome and prognostic factors following radiotherapy. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 41 (5): 1063-7, 1998.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
3. Tsang RW, Gospodarowicz MK, Pintilie M, et al.: Solitary plasmacytoma treated with radiotherapy: impact of tumor size on outcome. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 50 (1): 113-20, 2001.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
4. Dimopoulos MA, Goldstein J, Fuller L, et al.: Curability of solitary bone plasmacytoma. J Clin Oncol 10 (4): 587-90, 1992.  [PUBMED Abstract]