[Clinical Characteristics of Multiple Myeloma Patients with Early Relapse].

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics of multiple myeloma(MM) patients with early relapse.

Methods: A total of 50 MM patients with early relapse (≤12 months) and 50 matched controls with late relapse (>12 months) were selected. The time from diagnosis to relapse and related clinical data of the 100 patients were retrospectively analyzed, and the factors associated with early relapse were identified. Kaplan-Meier curve was used to analyze the overall survival (OS) time of the whole cohort. Area under the curve (AUC) was used to evaluate the effect of circulating plasma cells on early recurrence of the patients.

Results: The results showed that high-risk cytogenetics (FISH) (P=0.005), and ISS stage III (P=0.008) were associated with early recurrence of the patients. For patients with early relapse, high-risk FISH showed poor survival. Compared with the patients with late relapse, most of the chromosome karyotype of patients with early relapse showed quantitative and structural abnormalities. The expression of circulating plasma cells was significantly increased in patients with early recurrence group (P=0.0318). The response to initial treatment was poor in the early recurrence group (P=0.001), and the prognosis was significantly worse than those in the late recurrence group (median OS: 38 vs 81 months, P=0.002).

Conclusion: Early relapse is a marker poor prognostic in MM patients, and such patients should be focused on the improving their prognosis.