Cognition in Myeloma: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is the second most common form of blood and bone marrow cancer. It destroys bones, causes pain, increases the risks of infection, harms quality of life and remains incurable. There are around 6,200 new myeloma cases in the UK every year (Cancer Research UK).

In the last 20 years, treatments for MM have improved a lot, leading to longer survival for many patients. However, we still don’t know much about how these treatments might affect a patient's ability to think, learn, remember, and make decisions.

Our research aims to find out if MM treatments have any negative effects on thinking abilities. We will do this by reviewing and analyzing existing studies on this topic.

To conduct our research, we will search four databases: PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Embase, and Google Scholar. We will look for studies that provide information about the thinking skills of people with MM who are receiving treatment. After reviewing the studies, we found 17 that fit our criteria, and 10 of these provided enough data for a detailed analysis, called a meta-analysis, which combines results from different studies to draw stronger conclusions.

This research is important because it will help us understand if MM treatments affect mental abilities.