What is the life expectancy of people with multiple myeloma?

Improving: The historical (eg iss-based) myeloma life expectancies quoted are old news. Myeloma treatments are rapidly improving. It is still a bad disease that people die from too early, but we are getting better. That is a somewhat evasive, but true answer. The ceo of the mmrf (who has mm) is ~14 yrs out from diagnosis. http://www.themmrf.org/about-the-mmrf/leadership/executive-committee.html.

Much better now: With all the new targeted drugs for myeloma and several to come, patients live many more years. Some have said this cancer is now more like a chronic disease - still dangerous and needing treatment but it is characterized by longer periods of remission after treatment. Therefore a 65 or 75 year old person may have a normal life span with this disease now.