Inflammatory Cytokines in Symptom Production in Multiple Myeloma
Inflammatory Cytokines in Symptom Production in Multiple Myeloma
The goal of this research study is to learn about the pain and/or other symptoms that
 patients may experience either while you are being monitored by your doctor before a decision
 is made to start you on treatment for your MM, or during and after treatment for MM, and how
 these symptoms may affect therapy. A second goal is to learn how differences in genes may
 affect the symptom burden from cancer and cancer therapy.
If you agree to take part in this study, you will complete 5 questionnaires during a
 regularly scheduled clinic visit. These questionnaires will measure pain and other symptoms,
 such as your mood and quality of life. You will also be asked to give a tissue sample by
 inserting a swab into your mouth and rubbing firmly against the inside of your cheek or
 underneath your lower or upper lip for about a minute at most. Completing the 5
 questionnaires and the swab sample collection takes about 30 minutes in total.

 This is an investigational study.

 Up to 500 patients will take part in the cross-sectional phase of this study. All will be
 enrolled at MD Anderson.
Inclusion Criteria:

 1. Must speak and understand English;

 2. Must be diagnosed with MM and meet one of the following criteria: 1) have been treated
 for MM with steroids only, or have received no more than two cycles of induction
 chemotherapy for MM and are going to be treated with bortezomib or thalidomide for
 induction therapy; 2) have received induction therapy and have been approved (or are
 being approved) medically and financially to receive autologous hematopoietic stem
 cell transplantation (Auto-HSCT); 3) cross sectional study patients will be either
 with a current diagnosis of asymptomatic MM not receiving treatment; or at least 12
 months from the MM diagnosis, had received induction therapy, with or without received
 autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (Auto-HSCT) and follow-up
 treatments. This cohort for a cross sectional survey may include the cases been
 enrolled, either completed or dropped from the same study. It may also include
 patients who did not participate on the first phase of the protocol (longitudinal
 cohort).

 3. Patients >= 18 years old.

 Exclusion Criteria:

 1. Patients who do not understand the intent of the study, so cannot or will not give
 informed consent

 2. Patients who are unable to use the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system due to
 physical limitations (e.g., hearing impairment).

 3. Induction therapy patients with a neuropathy score of 3 or greater on the NCI's Common
 Terminology Criteria (CTC version 3.0) either at the beginning of induction
 chemotherapy or after 1-2 cycles of chemotherapy as a result of previous treatment or
 from some other comorbid cause. This exclusion criteria does apply to the auto-HSCT
 patients.