Clinical Profile and Treatment of Multiple Myeloma at a Tertiary Hospital in Kenya: A Five-Year Retrospective Review

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a chronic B-cell malignancy that involves proliferation of neoplastic clonal plasma cells in the bone marrow with circulating monoclonal immunoglobulins or constituent chains in serum or urine or both. It is a rare cancer with a lifetime risk of 0.76% and an age-adjusted incidence rate of 2.5-7.2 per 100,000 in high-income countries. There is a paucity of local data on the morbidity and treatment of MM.

This was a single-centre descriptive retrospective study at the Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH). The study population included inpatients and outpatients with a documented diagnosis of MM managed between 1^st January 2014 and 31^st December 2018. Demographic data, pathology reports, laboratory results, and clinical findings were transcribed and uploaded to a database, and data analysis was done using Stata 16® software.

A total of 207 patient files were reviewed. The median age at presentation was 60 years with a slight male preponderance. Bone pain was the predominant complaint in 59% (139/207) of patients, with 17% of patients presenting with paraparesis or paraplegia. For patients who underwent imaging, osteolytic bone lesions were identified in 90.6% (126/139). Anaemia was present in 71% (147/207) patients, hypercalcemia in 55.4%, and renal dysfunction in 38.2%. There were 25 different treatment regimens prescribed, with 13 patients (7%) being on bortezomib-based triplet therapy.

MM in KNH is a disease of the middle aged, affecting men and women almost equally and presenting mainly with bone pain and anaemia. Although there seems to be a general improvement in diagnosis and care, access to novel and less toxic agents for treatment is still wanting.