Staging of myeloma

Staging of myeloma helps to determine the extent (or burden) of the disease, plan appropriate treatment and predict prognosis. Other cancers, particularly solid cancers, use staging systems to indicate how far the cancer has spread. For myeloma, staging is a way of describing the volume and extent of the myeloma rather than where it is, because it is often widespread at diagnosis.

Staging in myeloma takes into account the results of blood, urine, bone marrow biopsy and imaging tests.

These are matched to one of two different staging tools; the Durie-Salmon Staging system or the International Staging System (ISS), which are described in more detail in the following sections.