Frequent Infections
The plasma or white blood cells myeloma targets are part of the body’s frontline defense against invasion by harmful foreign bodies. The plasma cells produce antibodies that help the immune system recognize and attack these harmful invaders.
As myeloma progresses and turns more healthy white blood cells cancerous, the ability of the immune cells in the bone marrow to fight infections is affected. [14] These unhealthy cells eventually become more than the functioning immune cells.
With the immune system weakened by myeloma, infections become more frequent and severe. Harmful bacteria and germs that this defense system could have limited or killed proliferate more freely in the body and cause sickness.