Serum cereblon level in Egyptian patients with multiple myeloma post autologous stem cell transplantation

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Background In Multiple myeloma (MM) there is increase in number of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow, and these cells secrete a monoclonal paraprotein and later on these proteins causes end organ damage. MM is a common hematological malignancy, and it is also one of the diseases that is difficult to follow-up accurately, especially when trying to know the possibilities of relapse after treatment proactively, and for this reason, the need for ways to follow-up patients with MM after treatment emerged proactively. Accurate evaluation of the depth of response to treatment, especially posttreatment with an autologous bone marrow transplant. Aim To measure cereblon (CRBN) in MM patients postautologous stem cell transplantation to determine its prognostic impact, to do correlation with other prognostic factors and to detect its influence on maintenance treatment response. This study had 20 myeloma patients after autologous stem cell transplantation. All patients received the same treatment; induction by VCD for 6 cycles (28 days-cycle) until CR/very good partial remission. Serum CRBN was measured in all patients post-ASCT to assess the response and to check for any sign of relapse. Diagnosis and response evaluation were applied according to International guidelines. Results This study was carried on 20 MM patients, the age ranged from 42 to 69, and most of them were males. CRBN ranged from 2.4 to 3.9 with mean of 3.1. All patients were CMV, HIV, HBV negative and 15% of them had HCV positive. In our study when comparing the complete blood count (CBC) results between 3 and 6 months after treatment, there is statistically significant increase in Hb, and Platelet; while the other complete blood count results showed no statistically significant difference. Conclusion There is studies found a linkage between high levels of CRBN and attainment of a favorable treatment response however no important association between the presence of high levels of this marker and overall survival OS, in our study we could not prove or deny that CRBN can be used as a reliable prognostic marker and this may be because this study requires a larger number of patients.