Tumor Lysis Syndrome in Multiple Myeloma: An Increasingly Recognized Risk—A Report of Seven Cases

Tumor lysis syndrome is a constellation of metabolic disturbances commonly seen during therapy of bulky, rapidly proliferative tumors. Multiple myeloma is a low proliferation tumor with rare incidence of tumor lysis syndrome in the pre-Bortezomib era. Post Bortezomib use, a rise in the incidence of tumor lysis has been noted. We present seven cases of tumor lysis syndrome with three patients in spontaneous tumor lysis and four developing the same after chemotherapy. In the previous studies, elevated LDH and deletion of chromosome 13 has been associated with risk of TLS. In our study, we noted several abnormal karyotpes including del 9p13, del 17 and monosomy 13 were more frequently found but larger studies are needed to explore the causative nature of these associations. Prognosis in these patients is relatively poor reflecting the higher tumor burden. However, further studies are needed to learn about other poor prognostic markers.