Lack of a caregiver is associated with shorter survival in myeloma patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation.

There is increasing evidence that social infrastructure and a healthy social network can improve cancer survival. Mayo Clinic has an outpatient stem cell transplantation program for myeloma. Safe outpatient transplantation requires a caregiver to be present.

Discordance between serum cardiac biomarker and immunoglobulin-free light-chain response in patients with immunoglobulin light-chain amyloidosis treated with immune modulatory drugs.

We evaluated the capability of soluble cardiac biomarkers to predict tolerability and outcomes of IMiD-containing treatments among 106 patients treated on clinical trials. Baseline elevations in troponin T (TnT) and N-terminal brain naturietic protein (NT-proBNP) predicted for an inability to tolerate IMiD-based regimens. The best predictors for early attrition during cycle 1 were TnT ≥ 0.