Patent ID: 6864047

Claim:
A method of determining the likelihood of progression of a multiple myeloma-related plasmaproliferative disorder in an individual to multiple myeloma, said method comprising: (a) providing a first bone marrow preparation supernatant from said individual diagnosed with a multiple myeloma-related plasmaproliferative disorder and a second bone marrow preparation supernatant from a normal individual; and (b) quantitating the amount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said first bone marrow preparation supernatant and the amount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said second bone marrow preparation supernatant, wherein progression to multiple myeloma is indicated if said mount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said first bone marrow preparation supernatant is greater than said amount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said second bone marrow preparation supernatant, and wherein progression to multiple myeloma is not indicated if said amount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said first bone marrow preparation supernatant is less than or similar to said amount of IL-6 produced by stromal cells cultured with said second bone marrow preparation supernatant.