Demographic profile, risk stratification, clinical characteristics, and treatment outcome of patients with multiple myeloma: A five-year retrospective study at a tertiary hospital in Ethiopia

BackgroundPatients with multiple myeloma are being seen at an increasing frequency in different indigenous African population. However, local data regarding the demographic profile, clinical characteristics, risk stratification, and treatment outcome of these patients is lacking. This study was designed to fill this existing gap in our setup. Hence, it will aid in the revision of treatment guidelines based on local data on the efficacy of existing treatment regimens and risk stratification of patients with a newly diagnosed multiple myeloma. MethodsA single centered Hospital-based retrospective Cohort study was conducted from January 2015 to December 2019. Eighty patients with newly diagnosed MM who received non-proteasome inhibitor-based therapy at TASH, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia were analyzed in the study. ResultsOut of the 80 patients in this cohort, 51(63.8%) of the patients were males (M: F ratio 1.76:1) and the median age at diagnosis was 52 years. The commonest complications identified were anemia (56.3%) and pathologic fracture (55%). The commonest comorbid conditions were; systemic hypertension (24%), CKD (6.3%), and diabetes (5%). The median Progression-Free Survival (PFS) and Overall Survival (OS) of patients were found to be 17.5 and 20 months respectively. This study also identified factors like advanced DS stage, presence of plasmacytoma, renal dysfunction, elevated serum LDH, high levels of serum protein, and monoclonal M-protein to have adverse implication on the OS and PFS of patients. ConclusionMultiple Myeloma is more common in the male population group and our patients are younger than the western population. Myeloma treatment regimens like CP and CPT are found to be less effective in our patients than in patients elsewhere. This is likely to be due to the advanced stage at presentation. In resource-limited setups, where determination of cytogenetic features of myeloma is difficult, different clinical and laboratory parameters can still serve as prognostic markers of treatment outcome & patient survival. Competing InterestsThe authors declare that they have no competing interests