Abstract
A 63-year-old male was admitted on May 8. 1978, because of paraplegia. This symptom was due to spinal cord compression caused by myeloma of IgG, κ type and improved by radiation therapy even 3 months after its oncet. This effectiveness was also confirmed with laboratory examinations such as lumbar puncture and computed tomography. The total doses of 60Co was 4,928 rad. Thereafter, the patient has been recieving cyclophosphamide and prednisolone.
The incidence of spinal cord compression is to 10 to 20% of patients with myeloma, and the radiation therapy for these cases has hardly been reported in Japan, while they were usually treated with surgery. But radiation is also useful for inoperable patiens, since myeloma is a high radiosensitive tumor and radiation therapy is not so invasive.
It has been indicated in some reports that paraplegia due to myeloma would be curable despite prolonged symptoms, and spinal cord compression progresses slowly in some cases. Therefore, it will be highly recommended to treat a patient with prolonged paraplegia due to myeloma by radiation as well as surgery.
