The purpose of this protocol is to determine which cytokines are responsible for bone destruction in patients with multiple myeloma, a severely debilitating and uniformly fatal neoplastic disease of B cell origin. The major source of morbidity and mortality associated with MM is osteolytic lesions throughout the axial skeleton. New bone formation at the sites of bone destruction is also absent. Levels of IL-6, IL-1, TNF alpha and beta in plasma and bone marrow are measured to determine if levels of any or all of these cytokines as well as levels of dendritic cells which express the KSHV virus are correlated, singly or in combination, with the clinical stage of the disease and with the extent of bone disease.
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