A clinical analysis was made of 61 cases of multiple myeloma diagnosed between January 1976 and June 1984 at Seoul National University Hospital using the criteria of the Southwest Oncology Group.
The following observations were made.
1) The major clinical problems at Initial presentation were bone pain(52%), anemia(20 %), renal impairment(11%), and infection(10%).
2) Clinical stages at presentation were stage I, 11%; stage II, 8%; and stage III, 81% of patients. Three(5%) of the patients in stage II and 18(31%) in stage III showed renal impairment with a serum creatinine ≥2.0 mg/dl.
3) Combination chemotherapy produced a response rate of 29% with melphalan and prednisone, and 40% with M2 protocol(among 14 and 20 evaluable patients respectively). Both regimens showed statistically significant survival difference between responders and non-responders(p <0.01).
4) The median survival of all patients was 13 months.
5)Age, calcium level, creatinine level, and performance status were important prognostic factors on survival.