What is myeloma?
Myeloma is a type of blood cancer that causes plasma cells to develop and reproduce too quickly. You might also hear it called ‘multiple myeloma’.
Your bone marrow produces cells called ‘lymphocytes’, which develop into different white blood cells with different jobs. Plasma cells are a type of lymphocyte. Their job is to produce antibodies to help to fight off infections.
If you have myeloma, the lymphocytes do not develop properly into plasma cells. These underdeveloped cells then quickly continue to reproduce. This means your plasma cells:
- Are not fully formed – This means they cannot do their job of producing antibodies to fight infection.
- Start to fill up your bone marrow – The plasma cells stop the bone marrow from producing all the types of healthy blood cells your body needs.
Although it is a blood cancer, myeloma can develop anywhere in your body.
How many people are diagnosed with myeloma?
Nearly 6,200 people are diagnosed with myeloma each year in the UK.
It is more common in adult men, Black people and people over the age of 60.
Treatments for myeloma
After a myeloma diagnosis, doctors might first give you treatments to try and keep it under control, like:
- targeted cancer drugs
- steroids.
If these treatments don’t get rid of the cancer, doctors might offer an autologous stem cell transplant – this is a stem cell transplant using your own stem cells.
In some cases, otherwise fit and healthy people who have quite an aggressive myeloma might have an allogeneic transplant. This is when someone else donates stem cells to you.
It’s also possible to have a second transplant to treat myeloma. If the myeloma returns, you might have a second autologous transplant if you responded well to the first one.
How many people have a stem cell transplant to treat myeloma?
There were 1,837 stem cell transplants in the UK to treat myeloma in 2023.
Where to find support for myeloma
Anthony Nolan supports people with all sorts of conditions that might use stem cells or cell therapies for treatment. But other organisations support people affected by specific blood cancers like myeloma.
To find out more about myeloma symptoms, diagnosis and treatments, you can visit:
To find advice and support for living with cancer, you can visit:
It all started with a really bad back, which I initially thought was another squash injury. But the weeks passed, and it just got worse.
Mark, who had a stem cell transplant to treat multiple myeloma. You can read his story on our blog.
Information last updated: 12/05/2025
Next review due: 12/05/2026