To mark European Myeloma Day, which this year falls on 27 September, Myeloma Patients Europe has announced findings from its recent report to raise awareness of myeloma and has launched a Myeloma Diagnosis Pathway to improve early diagnosis for patients.
Resulting in 50,000 new cases in Europe every year, myeloma is a rare and incurable blood cancer that currently accounts for approximately 1% of all cancers.
Four defining features of the condition include: elevated calcium, renal impairment or failure, anaemia and bone disease. Symptoms include bone or back pain, unintentional weight loss, and fatigue and weakness.
MPE’s research report, ‘Myeloma Diagnosis Across Europe – The Diagnosis Experiences of European Myeloma Patients and Perspectives from European Haematologists’, has revealed that early diagnosis is a major barrier that needs addressing to improve patient and experience outcomes.
The report showed that 24% of patients will wait five months or more to get a myeloma diagnosis and that 34% of them received a delayed diagnosis.
Despite the importance of getting diagnosed as early as possible, MPE’s report found that 21% of patients saw more than three different specialists, including renal or orthopaedic, before receiving a diagnosis.
Delayed diagnosis “can have long-term impacts on quality of life”, said Lise-Lott Eriksson, president of MPE.
Eriksson added that, in an effort to overcome this, “MPE is working with [its] members to raise awareness, educate clinicians and help reduce delays”.
MPE’s newly developed pathway outlines the main signs and symptoms of the condition and the tests and investigations that are undertaken if myeloma is suspected.
Katie Joyner, co-chief executive officer at MPE, believes that “we can do better” to provide patients with earlier diagnoses, saying: “Our aim this European Myeloma Day is to raise awareness of the diagnosis challenges and work on solutions, like translating and disseminating the Myeloma Diagnosis Pathway.”
The report showed that 63% of patients first presented with symptoms or received abnormal blood results from their GP or at an emergency hospital department (11%).
Kate Morgan, co-chief executive officer at MPE said that, with the new pathway being translated into several European languages and being distributed by MPE members to GPs across Europe, the hope is that “this will help patients get diagnosed faster”.