What is the prognosis (chance of recovery) for multiple myeloma and other plasma cell cancer types?

Depends on Fx: The international staging system (iss) is useful for comparing across clinical trial but is of limited utility for helping treat an individual. Ref: greipp pr, san miguel j, durie bg, et al. (2005) jco stage (med overall survival (os)) 1 = 62 mon 2 = 45 mon 3 = 29 mon os improved since then (2005 published, looking at older data). Other fx: cytogenetics, fish, flc, mri, pet, renal, gep, etc.

Better than before: Most patients can now achieve remission either with standard therapy or stem cell transplant. The remissions can be long lived although patients are not cured. Many live a decade or more with good quality of life and this time line continues to get longer with the new targeted therapies. The average life span used to be 2.5 years.