Long term use of curcumin in two smoldering multiple myeloma patients

Abstract

Introduction: Smoldering Multiple Myeloma (SMM) is an asymptomatic plasma cell disorder which has an overall risk of progression to multiple myeloma of 10% per year. The cornerstone of managing SMM is a “watch and wait” strategy. Curcumin has been shown to improve disease status in some patients with MGUS and SMM and has been added to the mainstream treatment of myeloma patients. We report here for the first time on long term use of oral curcumin in 2 SMM patients.

Patients: Two male Caucasian patients over the age of 40 presented to their general practitioners with fatigue/shoulder pain. Blood tests revealed paraproteinemia and a diagnosis of SMM was made based on IMWG guidelines. Both were entered into a 9 month clinical trial of oral curcumin in patients with plasma cell dyscrasias. Thereafter, they elected to continue on the same regimen of oral curcumin, for a period of 2 years.

Results/Discussion: Both patients showed continued improvement in a number of markers of disease activity including serum free light chains, paraprotein and % plasma cells in the bone marrow. These results suggest that patients with smoldering myeloma may benefit from daily ingestion of curcumin and long term use does not result in toxicity.