Less than half of patients aged 65 years or under with myeloma proceed to transplantation: results of a two region population-based survey.

In this population-based survey covering two geographically distinct UK regions, we evaluated the number of myeloma patients aged < or =65 years who have not undergone transplantation. The combined data from both of these regions showed that 57% of age-eligible patients were not transplanted. While early death and comorbidity accounted for nearly half of the non-transplanted patients, we examined the other reasons for non-transplantation within each region, assessed regional variations in reasons for non-transplant and looked at possible strategies aimed at increasing the transplantation rate.