Cerebral and meningeal multiple myeloma after autologous stem cell transplantation. A case report and review of the literature

Meningeal involvement of multiple myeloma is a very rare complication, Defining meningeal myelomatosis (MeM) as the presence of plasma cells in the cerebrospinal fluid in a patient with multiple myeloma, we have found 53 previously reported cases in the literature, where the diagnosis MeM has been made while the patient was alive. Using Kaplan Meier statistics we have found the median survival, from the time of diagnosis of MeM, to be 1.5 months. We report a case with MeM and possible cerebral myeloma shortly after autologous stem cell transplantation, and compare it with earlier published cases. (C) 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.