Lack of correlation between emergence of an abnormal protein band or of oligoclonal bands and survival in patients with multiple myeloma achieving complete remission following autologous stem cell transplantation

Natural history and prognostic impact of oligoclonal humoral response in patients with multiple myeloma after autologous stem cell transplantation: long-term results from a single institution

“…Contradictory results on prognosis have been reported in previous studies. 6,7,9,12,14 Differences in sample size, induction treatment, population heterogeneity, and, in particular, duration of follow up could be responsible for the discordant results. In any event, the presence of oligoclonal bands should be considered to be a characteristic of patients in CR rather than an independent prognostic marker.…”

“…6,8,9,12 However, reports on this are controversial. 7,13,14 The aim of the present study was to investigate the incidence, biological characteristics and prognostic value of the oligoclonal bands in patients with MM who underwent ASCT at our institution in the last 18 years.…”

Secondary monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance after allogeneic stem cell transplantation in multiple myeloma

“…Secondary MGUS occurs more frequently after treatment with autologous stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) (10%-73%) [1][2][3][4][5][6][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]17 than in patients who have not undergone auto-SCT (1.6%-3.1%). 4,9 Several studies also showed a higher frequency of sMGUS in patients treated with novel agents when compared to conventional chemotherapy.…”

“…1,2,4,6,9,10,[12][13][14]17 However, other studies, often with a small sample size, concluded that the presence of sMGUS does not relate to the prognosis of MM, or that it is only associated with a better response and not with a benefit in terms of PFS or OS. 5,7,8,11 In MM, allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) results in a high rate of molecular remissions and lower risk of relapse by virtue of the graft-versus-myeloma (GvM) effect. 21,22 However, because of high treatment-related mortality (TRM), especially after myeloablative conditioning, and the emergence of the novel agents which are effective and have relatively mild toxicity, the value of this approach is disputed and still has to be determined in clinical trials.…”

“…[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Several terms have been used to describe this phenomenon, including abnormal protein band, oligoclonal protein bands, transient mono-or oligoclonal gammopathy, apparent isotype switch, oligoclonal humoral response, atypical serum immunofixation pattern, and in myeloma patients, as we will use in this study, secondary monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance MGUS (sMGUS). 18 We consider post-transplant MGUS as a subtype of sMGUS.…”