To be able to make these decisions, it is important that patients and their families be well-informed. Helping get vital information into the hands of patients, their families and their physicians is central to the mission of the foundation. Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow. More specifically, it is an uncontrolled growth of plasma cells. While it is most common in older patients, more and more younger people are contracting the disease.
Plasma cells are a critical part of the body's immune system.
They are manufactured in the bone marrow and then move into the bloodstream. The bone marrow is the body's factory for producing blood cells. It is found in all bones but is concentrated in the pelvis and in the long bones of the arms and legs. People with myeloma have uncontrolled growth of plasma cells. Because there are so many, they are visible on microscopic examination of a bone marrow biopsy as sheets of plasma cells.