Greta’s first cancer symptoms in Kaunas were very unexpected: they blamed her for fatigue

The diagnosis was not found for long.

“The pain started very suddenly, I was in Rome in November and we walked to the Vatican, and I couldn’t get out of bed in December, early January,” recalled the interlocutor.

Unable to get angry, Greta went to the doctors for a diagnosis. The woman visited the hospital, did several tests, but these did not show anything bad. According to Greta, the whole investigation process took about a couple of months and the answers remained the same: nothing wrong was found in the body. After another procedure of this type, the doctors noticed that the problem could be in the bones because they were like broken.

“After a while, Dr. Rudžianskienė found out that it was a multiple myeloma disease,” he said.

– Even before the investigation, the doctors suspected the disease. I have read a lot about it, and as it were, I guessed that such a diagnosis is due to all the symptoms coinciding. Clearly, there was a shock. The family also responded. “

Currently, referral is welcome

After the diagnosis was made, the patient was prescribed a treatment: tablets, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, transplantation.

The interlocutor remembers that the most difficult result was when radiotherapy was applied. At that time, it was difficult for him to even eat. Another difficult period was after the transplant: the blood counts dropped dramatically and the woman felt very weak.

“After the transplant, there was a period when I could not go up to the second floor. There was no talk of organizing. The disease broke my bones, even when they asked me if I had been involved in an accident,” said the interlocutor.

But she quickly adds with a smile, “Still, I think I recovered quickly enough.”

Now Greta has been happy to stop the disease together with the doctors for 2 years – she is in remission. However, tests are still required every 3 months. Also, even with the onset of remission, the pain did not go away.

He went back to work in resuscitation.

The woman sincerely thanks her mother, husband, all relatives and doctors. According to the interlocutor, a lot of dedication and help was felt at each step of the treatment.

“Now, I think I am living well. It’s been 3 years since the transplant, I feel great. Apparently with God’s help. I came back to my life. Of course, I wear patches of pain. I went to a pain clinic for two years because the bone lesions persisted. It happens that it still hurts a lot now, Greta said.

– Although I returned to work in the intensive care unit, but I do a more sedentary job, I register patients, I am not on night shifts, I do not have the strength as before. But if I can wear high heels and walk in them, I think it’s not bad at all. “

And he adds optimistically: “Everything happens, sometimes better, sometimes badly, but now I feel strong enough.”

Every year there are 150 cases of this disease in Lithuania.

LSMU Kaunas clinics doctor hematologist dr. Milda Rudžianskienė told me what this little-known myeloma disease is.

“Myeloma is a malignant disease of the plasma cells that are responsible for our immunity. It is a chronic disease in which the proteins produced by tumor cells can damage the kidneys, cause the bone tissue to break, causing the patient pain, fractures and, in more severe cases, compression of the spinal cord, accompanied by severe pain and motor problems. Anemia is a very common cause of myeloma, “said the hematologist.

Although the disease is probably not the best known, about 150 new cases are diagnosed in Lithuania each year. In Europe, the incidence of myeloma varies around 5 per 100,000 people per year. The risk of developing it increases with age, and myeloma is usually diagnosed after age 65.

“Men get the disease a little more often than women. Its causes are unknown, it is believed that the risk of developing the disease is increased by harmful habits, chemicals, radiation, viruses, weakened immunity. There is no evidence that myeloma is hereditary, ”explained Dr. M. Rudžianskienė.

Symptoms are nonspecific

At the beginning of the disease, a third of patients do not feel any symptoms, or they are nonspecific: fatigue, weakness. Thus, even in the early stages of the disease, myeloma is rarely detected and is usually diagnosed when other symptoms, such as anemia, have not responded to iron therapy.

According to the doctor, patients with this diagnosis often suffer from bone pain, bone fractures and the development of hypercalcemia (increased calcium in the blood). In this case, patients complain of drowsiness, are listless, may experience abdominal pain, thirst, nausea, vomiting, some have kidney failure, frequent serious infections that require antibiotics.

Only one or more symptoms can be expressed.

Unfortunately, myeloma is still considered incurable. However, with the introduction of innovative treatments, transplantation can achieve long-term abstinence – remission.

“If a decade ago the average survival of myeloma patients was 5 years, then with the introduction of a new generation of drugs and biological therapies on the market, the survival of myeloma patients increased significantly,” said the doctor of LSMU Kaunas Clinics.

Still no chance of a complete cure

According to dr. M. Rudžianskienė, when diagnosing myeloma, it is very important to choose the right treatment for a particular patient.

“It just came to our knowledge then. The treatment of this disease consists of three groups of actions: specific treatment to control the disease itself, follow-up of the patient and treatment of complications caused by the disease. Specific treatment of the disease usually be chemotherapy and biological therapy, whose objective is to control myeloma and achieve remission, ”said the interlocutor.

If the age and condition of the patient allow, an autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant is performed after remission, followed by a longer remission, and the disease returns later. According to the doctor from the Kaunas clinics, surgical treatment of pathological fractures, radiation therapy, analgesics, bisphosphonates, as well as the treatment of kidney failure by hemodialysis play an important role in the treatment of myeloma complications.

“Many new drugs are currently being developed and are still being developed around the world to treat myeloma. It is appreciated that two innovative drugs for the treatment of myeloma recurrence have been reimbursed since this year, as well as a biologic for the treatment of newly diagnosed myeloma if the patient cannot be transplanted. But it is a pity that Lithuanian patients still do not have supportive treatment, we cannot prescribe some drugs as first-line treatment, “said the doctor.

There is no specific prevention for myeloma. As with all cancer diseases, the causes of myeloma are unknown and its development can be influenced by risk factors such as smoking, alcohol, obesity, chemicals, radiation, viruses, etc.

“Therefore, we can only recommend general recommendations for its prevention, such as a healthy lifestyle, an active lifestyle, a healthy diet, and measures to strengthen human immunity,” said Dr. M. Rudžianskienė.

“In the case of myeloma, unlike the case of breast cancer, prostate cancer or other oncological diseases, there are no screening programs or approved genetic tests to predict the disease.”