• biomarker
• B-cell maturation antigen
• sBCMA
• multiple myeloma

Multiple myeloma is a tumor of plasma cells and accounts for about 10% of all hematological malignancies. Its clinical course is characterized by periodic relapses over time, with an increasingly shorter progression-free interval with each evidence of recurrence. Despite the availability of more effective drugs and the improvement in overall survival rates compared with the past, it remains incurable. There is therefore a need for new therapies with new mechanisms of action, but also for new tools to assess the disease status and perhaps prevent clinical relapse, in order to meet the challenge that this disease still represents in the field of hematology. In general, biochemical markers are useful in multiple myeloma because they are inexpensive and non-invasive methods of assessment. sBCMA stands for soluble B-cell maturation antigen: it appears to be a very promising biomarker, because it can be detected in peripheral blood by low-cost methods. Our research aims to validate its significance in an unselected population of multiple myeloma patients undergoing life-saving treatments at different stages of the disease.