Multiple Myeloma

INCIDENCE Multiple myeloma is a rare disease. Life insurance tables give its incidence as 0.03 per cent of all malignant growths or 3 per cent of all sarcomas of bone. In the American Registry of Bone Tumors its relative incidence is somewhat higher; in proportion to osteogenic sarcoma it is in the ratio of approximately 1 to 12, and to Ewing's sarcoma, of approximately 1 to 3. Of the 200 primary malignant tumors of bone seen at the University Hospital since 1925, 40 have been diagnosed as multiple myeloma, an incidence of 20 per cent. This is at marked variance with the figures usually given, the incidence of multiple myeloma at the Johns Hopkins Hospital being only 3 per cent of 400 sarcomas of bone. The 40 patients with multiple myeloma reported on here were encountered in a series of 298,546 patients admitted to the hospital, a ratio of 1