title: Central nervous system myelomatosis: review of the literature.
abstract: Involvement of the central nervous system (CNS) in multiple myeloma (MM) is very uncommon; it has been observed in approximately 1% of the MM patients. This review summarizes the clinical and laboratory characteristics and treatment modalities of 109 patients with CNS myelomatosis (CNS MM) reported in the literature. CNS MM has a wide spectrum of neurological symptoms and signs. No guidelines for therapy of CNS MM are available, which has resulted in a large variation in the treatment schedules. Treatment options include intrathecal chemotherapy (IT), systemic chemotherapy (SC), cranial irradiation (CI) or a combination. The prognosis of CNS MM remains poor, with an overall median survival from the time of diagnosis to death of 2.0 months (range 0.1-25 months). Patients who were treated with CI had a significantly (P = 0.004) longer survival when compared with patients without CI.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, St. Antonius Hospital, Nieuwegein, The Netherlands. l.nieuwenhuizen@antonius.net
authors.forename: Laurens
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nieuwenhuizen
authors.forename: Douwe H
authors.initials: DH
authors.lastname: Biesma
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D016371:Cranial Irradiation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009101:Multiple Myeloma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D011379:Prognosis; D039781:PubMed