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The research was a collaboration between the University of Oxford, the University of Exeter and Chiddenbrook Surgery, Crediton, researchers investigated how useful a number of different measures were for indicating the presence of the disease, and suggested what combinations of these tests were sufficient to rule out the disease, and to diagnose it, saving the patient from the worry of specialist referral.
Blood tests of 2703 cases taken up to five years prior to diagnosis were analysed and compared with those of 12,157 patients without the cancer, matching cases with control patients of similar age among other relevant parameters. They demonstrated that a simple combination of two blood parameters could be enough to diagnose patients.
The combination of levels of haemoglobin, the oxygen carrier in the blood, and one of two inflammatory markers erythrocyte sedimentation rate or plasma viscosity are a sufficient test rule out myeloma. If abnormalities are detected in this test, it should lead to urgent urine protein tests which can help speed up diagnosis.
It can lead to symptoms such as bone pain, fatigue and kidney failure. It has the longest diagnosis process of all common cancers, and a large number of patients are diagnosed after emergency care, over a third of which having had at least three primary care consultations.
GP will see a patient with myeloma every five years and early diagnosis matters. More timely treatment could significantly improve survival rates for this disease. We report a simple way a GP can check patients presenting symptoms such as back, rib and chest pain, or recurrent chest infections, and determine whether they have myeloma or not.