Multiple myeloma presenting as CEA-producing rectal cancer

Aggressive plasmablastic multiple myeloma in a 42-year-old: is inflammatory bowel disease or infliximab treatment to be blamed?

A man in his early 40s with a history of ulcerative colitis, treated with infliximab, was diagnosed with plasmablastic multiple myeloma. He was treated with chemotherapy and stem cell transplant but developed recurrence and ultimately died from metastatic disease. Could inflammatory bowel disease or infliximab therapy have any role in development of myeloma in this young patient? The role of inflammatory bowel disease and infliximab therapy in the development of multiple myeloma is controversial but interesting and worth considering.

Discovering multiple myeloma early in ambulatory patients with chest pain

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a systemic malignancy of plasma cells often characterized by sternal, rib, or back pain. This article describes how a patient who had chest pain for more than one month was mistakenly diagnosed with reflux esophagitis. Healthcare providers should be mindful of MM when determining the source of unidentified chest pain in patients.