If you have an early precancerous condition or multiple myeloma that's in remission, your team may recommend active surveillance. Also called "watch and wait," active surveillance involves regular checkups and blood tests to make sure you know if and when the condition progresses. Careful surveillance can help you prevent or delay the side effects of treatment.

Because multiple myeloma can weaken bones, your team may recommend certain medications to help avoid fractures. Bisphosphonates can help bones stay stronger, and pain medications can treat bone pain.

A donor (allogeneic) bone marrow transplant (BMT), also called hematopoietic stem cell transplant, removes cancerous cells in the bone marrow and replaces them with healthy cells. An autologous stem cell transplant removes cells from your own body to allow high-dose chemotherapy to treat the myeloma.

Before transplantation, you receive high doses of chemotherapy or radiation to destroy unhealthy bone marrow. Then our experts infuse the new cells into your body through a tube in the chest. The process is painless, and you'll be awake. After BMT, you stay in the hospital for several weeks for monitoring.

If you are of a population that cannot receive blood products, Penn Medicine offers bloodless transplantation.

Chemotherapy medications are chemicals that kill cancerous cells. They may be taken as pills or infusions into your veins.

CAR T cell therapy is one of the newest, most advanced ways to treat certain types of multiple myeloma. We take immune cells from your own blood and engineer them to fight blood cancer. We then infuse the engineered cells back into your body.

Penn was a pioneer in CAR T cell therapy and continues to lead the field in research and treatment.

Cancer cells make proteins that can help them hide from your body's immune system. Immunotherapy interferes with that process, helping your own immune system kill cancerous cells.

Immunotherapy is a promising new treatment for multiple myeloma, with more and more options. Certain therapies are best for certain subsets of patients. Your specialist can help determine whether immunotherapy is right for you.

Radiation therapy (radiotherapy) uses high doses of radiation to damage or kill cancerous cells. Depending on your diagnosis, we may use radiotherapy on a specific area of your body or we may deliver whole-body radiation.

Steroids are often used in patients with multiple myeloma to help fight the disease and manage symptoms. Because steroids do have side effects and risks, your team will help you decide whether they're right for you.

Targeted molecular therapies attack specific parts of cancer cells to stop their growth or kill them. They may work when chemotherapy and other treatments don't.