Multiple Myeloma

Myeloma is a cancer that arises from a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Plasma cells originate in the bone marrow and play an important role in your immune system. 

Multiple myeloma develops when a normal plasma cell changes into a myeloma cell. These are cancerous cells that can multiply uncontrollably. A normal plasma cell becomes cancerous because of changes in the bone marrow or changes in a cell’s DNA (genetic mutations).

If you have multiple myeloma, you can develop tumors in more than one location in the bone marrow and sometimes outside the bone marrow. That is why the disease is called multiple myeloma. 

As myeloma cells take over space in the bones where bone marrow grows, they prevent the marrow from producing essential blood cells. This includes red blood cells, which carry oxygen and other types of white blood cells, which fight infection.