SPEP Test Result of 2/5/08

They say the third time is th charm. I had the charming m-spike of .28 mg/dl, a .06 increase from last time which is essentially the same. So, I appear to be on a plateau of some sort. I will continue to take the cancer drugs and maybe go back to Mayo for a check up a couple of months early. I continue to hope for an m-spike of zero but that is beginning to look less likely with each passing month. We will just have to stay the course and wait and see what happens.

Complete response (CR):
Treatment outcome where there is no detectable M protein in the serum and urine (using immunofixation) and normal percentage of plasma cells in the bone marrow or absence of myeloma cells by staining techniques; also referred to as complete remission

Very good partial response:
Treatment outcome where there is a greater than 90% decrease in M protein; also known as near complete response or very good partial remission.

Source: Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation
http://www.multiplemyeloma.org/