Outlook with treatment
New treatment options have significantly improved the outlook for patients with myeloma. With the availability of the novel drugs survival rates have improved significantly, with life expectancy quadrupling since the 1990s. Now, around 1 in 3 people living with myeloma will survive the cancer for 10 years or more. With newer drugs on the horizon, survival rates are expected to improve further in the future.
In the last 25 years, the average length of time a person living with myeloma could expect to survive was between 12 and 24 months. Now, this has increased to between 4.5 – 9 years.
It is important to note that myeloma is a heterogeneous disease and survival can range dramatically between patients. Given that therapeutic progress is ongoing in the field of myeloma, even up-to-date survival estimates may not accurately reflect the outlook for currently diagnosed patients.