Management of myeloma kidney: an anti-light-chain approach

This report describes the course of 23 patients with multiple myeloma and severe renal failure treated with a combination of plasmapheresis, chemotherapy, and supportive measures. Eight of ten patients with acute renal failure (ARF) obtained recovery of renal function, and in five of them serum creatinine concentration returned to normal. The remaining two patients died before the effect of treatment could be evaluated. Eleven of 13 patients with chronic renal failure (CRF) had substantial, albeit incomplete, improvement in renal function. The extent of functional recovery appeared to depend on the type of renal lesions, probably related to the duration of exposure to light chains. The median survival of the whole series of patients was 9 months, and five patients lived longer than 3 years. No clear-cut difference in survival was found between the group with ARF and that with CRF, although the latter presented higher values of serum creatinine at the time of diagnosis and residual renal insufficiency after the completion of treatment. Moreover, no significantly different survival times were found when the group with complete recovery of renal function was compared to that with minor improvement. Thus, renal failure, with the availability of effective forms of treatment of uremia, did not play a major prognostic role in our series. In contrast, the response to chemotherapy appeared to be the outstanding factor conditioning the duration of survival in these patients.