Beth Faiman:
When people hear multiple myeloma, one of the first questions that they ask is, how long will I have to live? Hi, my name is Beth Faiman. I am a nurse practitioner and I am a nurse on the International Myeloma Foundation's Nurse Leadership Board, and I am here to talk to you about life expectancy, in a minute or less.
Now, this is a very difficult discussion to have, life expectancy. While I'm pleased to report that eight to 10 years is an average life expectancy, you might be sitting here saying, "I'm only 50 years old. That's not very long." But we've seen dramatic improvements in survival from the year 2000, where patients only lived two to three years, to now where patients are living a normal lifespan in some considerations. So it's important to talk to your healthcare provider about your disease risk status. Learn all you can about the effective treatments, because we have patients living longer than ever based on better supportive care, better clinical trial designs, and getting access to earlier therapies when they are available.
It's so important for you to educate yourself, so you can advocate for yourself, so you can have better outcomes.
