Protein analyses in myelomatosis.

The criteria for the admission of patients to the Medical Research Council's (MRC) myeloma trials are the finding of abnormal plasma cells in bone marrow films or sections and in addition either of characteristic skeletal lesions demonstrated radiologically or of characteristic protein changes in the serum or urine. Ninety per cent of the patients in the first myeloma trial satisfied all three criteria (Medical Research Council, 1971). Before the introduction of alkylating agents in the treatment of myelomatosis the median survival of patients with this disease was 17 months after the onset of symptoms and seven months after the start of treatment (Farhangi and Osserman, 1973). The survival of patients is now much longer and this is due partly to the introduction of alkylating agents such as melphalan and cyclophosphamide and partly to improved techniques of biochemical monitoring of the tumour. The subject of this article is the monitoring of immunocytomas by biochemical analyses.