Factors influencing the prognosis in myelomatosis.

One hundred and eighty-eight patients with myelomatosis, 166 of whom had multiple myelomatosis, were studied to assess the prognostic significance of age, sex, mode of clinical presentation, presence of anaemia, azotaemia and abnormal cells in the peripheral blood at the time of diagnosis. The generalized disease was rapidly fatal in many of these unselected patients. Women survived longer than men and the young slightly longer than the old. Of the laboratory findings, only a raised blood urea (greater than 60 mg/100 ml) was associated with a statistically poorer prognosis.