[Multiple myeloma and other plasma cell dyscrasias]

Multiple myeloma is the most common primary malignant disease of bone marrow. It mainly occurs among elderly people and, according to international databases, it is twice as frequent in men, however in our country this fact cannot be observed because of the high male mortality rate. The presence of this disease increased by more than one and the half times during the last 60 years. The five year survival for multiple myeloma has increased from 25% to 40% since the seventies due to high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation and the new anti-myeloma drugs which were introduced in the last decade, such as immunomodulators (IMiD) like thalidomide, lenalidomide, pomalidomide and proteasome inhibitors (PI) like bortezomib, carfilzomib, ixazomib. The number of treatment options are growing fast, and not only because of using new combinations of medications, but also due to the development of investigational products which are available for the patients by participating in a clinical trial.