Interdisciplinary approach to multiple myeloma - time to diagnosis and warning signs.
Leuk Lymphoma
; 62(4): 891-898, 2021 04.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-33225781
ABSTRACT
Delayed diagnosis is a common challenge in the management of multiple myeloma (MM). This prospective interdisciplinary study evaluated symptoms and time to diagnosis (TTD) in 81/295 screened patients at our tertiary center, who were examined by an orthopedist prior to the MM diagnosis. The most frequent complaint was back pain (81%), mainly localized thoracic and/or lumbar. Pain was independent of movement in 85%, occurred at night in 69%, and at multiple localizations in 30% of patients. Notably, 63% patients with an orthopedic disease noticed substantial symptom change before the MM diagnosis was made. The median TTD was 7 months and did not differ significantly between patients with or without a preexisting skeletal disease. To avoid delayed diagnosis, physicians should consider MM as a differential diagnosis, whenever warning signs such as skeletal pain independent from movement, at night, at various localizations, and change in pain characteristics accompanied by fatigue, are reported.
Key words
Full text:
1
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Multiple Myeloma
Type of study:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Observational_studies
Limits:
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Leuk Lymphoma
Journal subject:
HEMATOLOGIA
/
NEOPLASIAS
Year:
2021
Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Germany