← Return to Mildly Hypocellular bone marrow (40% cellularity) with MGUS

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@loribmt

Good morning and welcome to Connect @hpatel334. You’ve been diagnosed with Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). It indicates there’s an abnormal protein found in your blood. It can eventually cause tissue damage if the level becomes too high. It’s a condition that bears watching over time but for many people it’s one of those active surveillance conditions which don’t progress.

From my understanding, right now there’s nothing that requires treatment for you but you’re concerned about findings with the bone marrow biopsy and exam (bmbx) with the comment stating that your marrow is mildly hypocellular for your age. The bone marrow is the heart of the blood manufacturing site in the body, responsible for red & white blood cells and platelets. The bmbx allows for an in-depth look at the marrow directly from the source, providing a detailed picture of the marrow’s ability to produce healthy blood products. Your tests revealed that you have 40% cellularity, which is low but still in the normal range for your age. (Age 20-70 years range 40%-70%). Findings suggests your bone marrow is healthy but not producing blood products at a robust capacity.
All your other tests came clean and scans show there are no tumors. From the biopsy where it states Erythroid/Myeloid elements are complete with no dysplasia, that would indicate the White and Red blood cells you have are mature and not showing signs of any deformities. Which is great!
Especially important is that the tests show no abnormal increase of blasts. Blasts are immature white blood cells and if there is an over abundance of those that can be an indication of leukemia.

At 24, these should be some of the more carefree times of your life and instead you’re having to worry about bone marrow biopsies and blood work. From experience I know how this can overtake our thoughts but it’s so important to not let this be pervasive. What you have may not progress over time so right now it’s important to just go on living your normal life. Have your regular blood work just to keep tabs on any changes and if things do change then you’ll deal with.
How often does your hematologist want to check your blood work?

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Replies to "Good morning and welcome to Connect @hpatel334. You’ve been diagnosed with Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance..."

@loribmt Thank you for your message! I appreciate this. To answer your question, my hematologist wants to be more aggressive, and I am having to do 3-month tests for the next year. Once these show a stable trend, she will shift me to a 6 month or 1 year period. Because the M protein spike went from 0.3 to 0.6 within 1.5 years of my diagnosis, she recommended this. I wish I was on 6 month or 1 year period especially now that the bmbx results show no major signs or concerns.