The 5% threshold is a real, established clinical benchmark — not a figurative number. It's used by doctors to help distinguish between myeloma and other plasma cell conditions.
In a healthy person, plasma cells make up a small portion of bone marrow cells. When plasma cells exceed 10% of bone marrow cells, it typically Show Full Answer
The 5% threshold is a real, established clinical benchmark — not a figurative number. It's used by doctors to help distinguish between myeloma and other plasma cell conditions.
In a healthy person, plasma cells make up a small portion of bone marrow cells. When plasma cells exceed 10% of bone marrow cells, it typically indicates myeloma. The 5% figure comes into play in a couple of important ways: - Diagnosing myeloma vs. other conditions: If bone marrow plasma cells are less than 5%, a condition may be classified as something other than multiple myeloma.
- Measuring remission (Complete Response): Historically, doctors considered a patient to have reached complete remission (CR) if plasma cells in the bone marrow dropped below 5%.
That said, reaching CR doesn't mean myeloma is cured. Even below 5%, some myeloma cells may remain. This is why more sensitive testing, like Minimal Residual Disease (MRD) testing, has become increasingly important — it can detect cancer cells at a much finer level than the 5% threshold alone.
July 25
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