Steroid pill treatment can prove to be an effective option for improving the overall survival rate of patients with multiple myeloma, as per researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Multiple myeloma is a type of cancer that takes about 14,000 lives in the United States alone.

James Berenson, M.D., lead author of the Southwest Oncology Group sponsored study and Director of the Multiple Myeloma and Bone Metastasis Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, suggested that the use of prednisone in response to an upfront chemotherapy is an effective as well as safe option for prolonging the lives of patients suffering from Multiple Myeloma.

From News.Bio-Medicine.Org:

Multiple myeloma occurs when the body makes an abnormally high number of cancerous plasma cells. When healthy, plasma cells help to protect the body from infection and disease by forming antibodies that attack foreign substances. But when the body makes too many plasma cells that all make the same type of antibody, this leads to multiple myeloma, causing damage to bones, severe bone pain, an overabundance of calcium in the blood, anemia, and a weakening of the immune system. Today, most patients with multiple myeloma receive initial treatment with chemotherapy or with high-dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant and many respond to treatment and achieve remission. However, all patients ultimately relapse with incurable disease, leading physicians to search for ways to prolong remission for as long as possible by using some type of maintenance therapy.

The involved researchers concluded that patients administered with oral prednisone in the long-term after chemotherapy treatment were able to easily maintain their remission and lived for long than those not on prednisone.