Multiple Myeloma

Abstract
Multiple myeloma is a well-known clinically distinctive malignant disease of the skeleton, characterized by multiple osteolytic plasma-cell tumors of bone and a proliferation of plasma cells within the marrow. These tumors have a predilection for the bones where active blood formation takes place in the adult; i. e., the sternum, ribs, vertebral bodies, skull, bones of the shoulder girdle, pelvis, and upper ends of the humeri and femora. Although the substance now known as Bence-Jones protein was first discovered in 1845 by Dr. Henry Bence-Jones 1 and von Rustizky 2 first described the condition mul-tiples Myelom in 1873, it was not till 1889 that Kahler3 associated this disease with the occurrence of Bence-Jones proteinuria. Since then, excellent reviews by Geshickter and Copeland,4 Bayrd and Heck,5 and Lichtenstein and Jaffe 6 have helped systematize our present knowledge of this disease. This discussion is based on 61 cases