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Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS)

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Encyclopedia of Cancer

Synonyms

Monoclonal gammopathy of unknown significance and monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance are synonyms. MGUS was formerly known as benign monoclonal gammopathy (BMG), but usage of this term has been discouraged because it implies that the condition is not harmful in effect. To highlight recent findings that MGUS may cause kidney and skeletal damage in a subset of patients, the term has been modified in the biomedical literature to monoclonal gammopathy of renal significance and monoclonal gammopathy of skeletal significance, respectively.

Definition

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) (Agarwal and Ghobrial 2013; Landgren 2013) is defined by a serum paraprotein (monoclonal immunoglobulin or mIg, M-spike, M-protein) that amounts to 30 g/L or less in individuals that (a) contain ≤10 % clonal, immunoglobulin-producing cells in the hematopoietic bone marrow and (b) do not exhibit the sort of end-organ damage (e.g., anemia, lytic bone lesions,...

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References

  • Agarwal A, Ghobrial IM (2013) Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering multiple myeloma: a review of the current understanding of epidemiology, biology, risk stratification, and management of myeloma precursor disease. Clin Cancer Res 19:985–94

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  • Kyle RA et al (2013) Immunoglobulin m monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia. Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk 13:184–6

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  • Landgren O (2013) Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and smoldering multiple myeloma: biological insights and early treatment strategies. Hematol Am Soc Hematol Educ Program 2013:478–87

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See Also

  • (2012) POEMS syndrome. In: Schwab M (ed) Encyclopedia of cancer. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg, p 2934. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-16483-5_4652

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Correspondence to Siegfried Janz .

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Janz, S. (2015). Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance (MGUS). In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_3824-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_3824-3

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27841-9

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