Any person’s individual multiple myeloma prognosis depends on several health factors. People who have kidney damage or who are older are more likely to have poorer prognoses. Additionally, doctors perform many tests to get an overall picture of how a person’s body is responding to myeloma.

Samples of a person’s bone marrow can be tested for different factors that affect prognoses. A lab test called the myeloma cell staging index or plasma cell labeling index can show the percentage of myeloma cells that are growing, with lower labeling indexes indicating…