SOLITARY PLASMACYTOMA OF THE SPINE - RELATIONSHIP OF IGM TO TUMOR PROGRESSION AND RECURRENCE

The authors report a retrospective study of 15 patients with solitary vertebral plasmacytoma. 15 patients were considered in this study on t he basis of the following characteristics: 1) histologically confirmed plasmacytoma following surgical removal; 2) existence of a single ver tebral lesion, documented by skeletal and MRT scan; 3) no signs, at di agnosis of disseminated disease by blood laboratory test, urine analys is, sternal puncture, iliac bone marrow biopsy, a total-body CT scan. The clinical course of the patients has been analysed on the basis of the following factors: age, sex, length of clinical history before dia gnosis, site, presence/absence of the M component. The M component is an electrophoretically homogeneous immunoglobin. The most significant factors for predicting development of multiple myeloma proved to be th e presence/absence of the M component at diagnosis and, to a lesser de gree, the age of the patient. In the Light of other reports too, it wo uld seem that the presence of the M component at diagnosis is a reflec tion of aggressive biological and clinical tumour behaviour.