All information given here is of general nature only, a tumor therapy always belongs in the hands of an experienced oncologist!
Synonyms
multiple myeloma, Kahler’s disease, M. Kahler, Kahler ́sche Disease
Definition
Multiple myeloma, also known synonymously as plasmocytoma, is a malignant disease (tumor) of the B – lymphocytes, which belong to the white blood cells. The B lymphocytes are part of the human defense system and are found mainly in the lymph nodes and blood. By definition, plasmocytoma belongs to the group of non-Hodgkin lymphomas with low malignancy and is characterized by the formation of defective immunoglobulins.
Summary
Like many diseases, Kahler’s disease was named after its discoverer, the Viennese physician Otto Kahler. In medical terms, Kahler’s disease is also called plasmocytoma or multiple myeloma. This is a malignant disease of the white blood cells in the bone marrow, which can also affect organs outside the bone marrow as the disease progresses.
In this case it is called extramedullary multiple myeloma. Plasma cells belong to the group of white blood cells, also called leukocytes. There are different types of white blood cells in our body, all of which are busy fending off intruders (e.g. viruses and bacteria).
Plasma cells form the so-called immunoglobulins, substances that can mark bacteria and viruses in order to identify them to the body’s own macrophages. In multiple myeloma, usually only one type of plasma cell proliferates (hence the expression: monoclonal = starting from a single strain). This means that at any one time a plasma cell is degenerating and multiplying.
It therefore forms many identical images of its own cell. Since it is important to be able to react to the many different attackers of the human body, we need many different plasma cells. However, since monoclonal plasma cells all produce the same immunoglobulins (defensive proteins, some of which are defective or incomplete), a specific defense is no longer possible.
The defective immunoglobulins (immune proteins) are also called paraproteins or M-proteins. Some of these are incomplete protein chains that can be detected in the blood by means of electrophoresis. These protein chains are also called Bence Jones protein or Bence Jones proteins.
Tumor forms that form these proteins are also called light chains – myeloma. Particularly degenerated plasmocytoma forms can no longer produce defense proteins. This is known as non-secreting myeloma.
The plasmocytoma does not produce any actual metastases. Tumor cell clusters can attack internal organs. If the multiple myeloma grows strongly in the bone marrow, bone dissolution (lysis) can occur. This weakens the bone and can lead to so-called pathological fractures. Pathological fractures are fractures caused by tumor growth.
