Radiation therapy has been shown to be very effective in this disease and patients with MALT lymphoma generally have a good prognosis. Patients with localized disease, when treated with a brief course of chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy, enjoy an excellent prognosis. If there is only one site affected, it is called a plasmacytoma. If there are multiple sites within the bone marrow affected, it is called multiple myeloma. Radiation therapy is the treatment of choice for a solitary plasmacytoma and is associated with a very good chance of local disease control.
Chemotherapy is the primary treatment for multiple myeloma.
However if there are particular regions where the bone is greatly weakened by the tumor or where the tumor is refractory to chemotherapy, radiation therapy is very effective in relief of symptoms and control of local regional disease. Total Body Irradiation and the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit Bone marrow transplantation and, more recently, peripheral blood stem cell transplantation have played an increasing role in the treatment of leukemias and lymphomas, and is a treatment option in the management of pediatric solid tumors. For patients with very high risk disease, Drs. Simon N. Powell and Thomas Spitzer of Massachusetts General Hospital are piloting a treatment approach using higher doses of whole body radiation to all areas except sensitive organs such as the lung and kidney. This has led to encouraging results for a group of patients who otherwise have had a poor outlook.