Some historical points reqarding myeloma

Otto Kahler

The first well-documented case of multiple myeloma was reported by Samuel Solley in 1844. Otto Kahler, a physician from Prague, published a detailed description (1889) of the disease in a colleague and for a while multiple myeloma was known as Kahler's disease. Incidentally, the word myeloma is derived from two parts “myelo” from the Greek word “muelos” meaning marrow, and “ oma” a Greek suffix commonly used to denote a tumour.

In 2007, a standard PUBMED (the USA National Institute of Medicine and National Institutes of Health database) search of the term “myeloma” results in a collection of over 33,000 scientific publications. Historically, myeloma cells were thought to be post-germinal centre antigen selected, terminally differentiated B lymphocytes, in origin. Recent work from the John Hopkins University School of Medicine has indicated that myeloma may be a stem cell derived cancer.

The first description of myeloma in the cat was not until 1957 - published by Holzworth & Meier from the Angel Memorial Animal Hospital in Boston (Cornell Veterinarian 1957, 47, 301-316). Feline myeloma related disorders are rare tumours, but over the years more than a hundred cases have been described with occasional small case series. However, only recently has the largest case series of confirmed feline MRD been published (Mellor et al 2006, JVIM, 20, 1376-1383).

Acknowledgements:
My thanks to my co-authors: Sean Haugland, Sue Murphy, Ken Smith, Andrew Holloway, Roger Powell, Gerry Polton, Severine Tasker, David McCormick, Michelle Tempest, Tim Scase, Chris Knott, Ugo Bonfanti, Elizabeth Villiers, Dominique Fournier, Malcolm Brearley, Colin Nixon, Chris Belford, Andrew Philbey, and in particular to the following key mentors, David Argyle, Ken Smith, Michael Herrtage, Pauline McNeil, Joy Archer and Michael Day. Many thanks to the owners of the cats and colleagues in first opinion practice who kindly referred either cases or case material and without whose help these rare diseases could not have been characterized. Thanks to staff at the following: six UK veterinary schools; the Animal Health Trust; Davies Veterinary Specialists; Wey Referrals; Willows Referrals; N. Kent Referrals; N. Downs Referrals; Veterinary Referrals Cancer and Critical Care Center; Godiva Referrals; Stone Lion Veterinary Center; Animal Medical Center; Oxford Cat Practice; Nine Lives Referrals; Finn Pathologists; Cytopath Ltd.; Rest Pathology; Abbey Veterinary Services, IDEXX Laboratories Ltd.; TDDS Laboratories; Axiom Laboratories and Leeds Veterinary Laboratory Ltd. Thanks to Jodi Miller (Animal Health Trust) for immunohistochemical assistance; Dr. Fred Heath and Dr. T.J. McKinley (Cambridge Infectious Diseases Consortium, Dept. of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge) for statistical assistance and Dr Paul Pion and colleagues (Veterinary Information Network) ) and my neighbour Trevor Hyde for their kind help with this website.

The financial support of the following organizations is gratefully acknowledged:
University of Cambridge Vet School Trust
University of Edinburgh Birrell-Gray Scholarship
Pet Plan Charitable Trust
Hills Pet Nutrition Ltd. kindly sponsored Paul Mellor's clinical scholarship at the University of Cambridge.

Links:
Veterinary Information Network: https://www.vin.com/

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