“Benign” monoclonal gammopathy: A potentially malignant condition?

Abstract

We describe a patient in whom classic clinical multiple myeloma did not develop until eighteen years after discovery of an elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hyperglobulinemia and increased plasma cells in the bone marrow. The patient exhibited a tall, sharp peak in the serum electrophoretic pattern, no appreciable change in the amount of serum γ-globulin (which was less than 3.0 gm. per 100 ml.), and a constant slight plasmacytosis in the bone marrow for nearly eighteen years, thus fulfilling the criteria for “benign monoclonal gammopathy.” This illustrates the possibility that this “chronic benign process” can erupt into a progressive and serious phase at a much later date, and extends our understanding of plasmaproliferative disease.