“Nonsecretory” Plasma Cell Myeloma: Observations on Seven Cases with Electron Microscopic Studies

Nonsecretory Multiple Myeloma

“…In some clinical studies, patients with this disease variant appeared to differ from secretory myeloma patients with respect to their younger age [6], the less advanced disease [6] and the marked depression of normal immunoglobulins [2,9]. In contrast, in other studies similar clinical, radiological and hematologi cal features were found in cases with and without de tectable M component [10].…”

“…Previous reports on nonsecretory myeloma were controversial as to prognosis, the median survival ranging from a few months to almost 3 years [2,6,12], Nevertheless, cases with long life spans have occa sionally been described [14], and in a recent report the clinical outlook of these patients appeared to be even better than that of typical myeloma population [6]. Our study showed that the survival length of nonse cretory myeloma patients was similar to that of com parably staged patients with the secretory variant of the disease.…”

“…In some studies, no difference with M-protein-producing cases could be recognized [10], whereas other studies found a less advanced disease and/or less impaired immunoglob ulin values in nonsecretory patients [6,8,12,14,16]. Similarly, controversies also exist as to whether the clinical course and prognosis of this disease variant are different from those of typical myelomatosis [2,3,6,12], In order to investigate whether nonsecretory mye loma is a distinct clinical entity we analyzed a series 1 of 7 consecutive patients. We found that all but 1 of them had high tumor cell mass stage, and that the le vels of normal immunoglobulins in this group were more markedly depressed than in the secretory group.…”

Pseudo-Nonsecretory Multiple Myeloma with Light Chain Deposition Disease

“…In a series of 267 patients with plasma cell myeloma, three cases of nonsecretory myeloma were detected [1]. Five patients with nonsecretory myeloma were also reported in each of two series of 132 cases [2] and 186 cases [3] of multiple myeloma. We have previously reported two cases of so-called nonsecretory, pseudo-nonsecretory myeloma, in which the patients had no detectable Bence-Jones proteinuria or serum monoclonal component, al though, the secretion of monoclonal protein was de monstrable by the plaque-forming assay [4].…”

Ultrastructural Characteristics of the Plasma Cells of a Patient with Nonsecretory Myeloma and Plasma Cell Leukemia

“…Osserman and Takatsuki [7] reported 3 cases with nonse cretory myeloma. Azar et al [1] reported 5 patients of the nonsecretory type of the dis ease in a series of 132 cases with multiple myeloma. Plasma cell leukemia is an ex ceedingly rare condition which accounts for less than 2% of plasmatic dyscrasias [2].…”