Multiple myeloma is one of the most common haematologic malignancies. Currently there are numerous studies looking for new prognostic markers in multiple myeloma. The most important of them are the markers related to proliferative activity of neoplastic cells or to size of tumor mass. The subject of this paper are the results obtained from investigation of some such laboratory markers in a group of patients with monoclonal gammopathies diagnosed at our department in the last 3 years. We analyzed blood and bone marrow samples from 51 patients with new diagnosed monoclonal gammopathies, 14 of them were patients with monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and 37 patients had multiple myeloma. 17 patients with multiple myeloma were treated by high-dose chemotherapy regimen. We assessed significance of selected laboratory markers for differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathies and for monitoring of activity of multiple myeloma. Among the investigated parameters, we verified the significance of cell cycle analysis of bone marrow plasmatic population and of the determination of the number of circula- ting myeloma cells in differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathies. In our opinion, the determination of soluble CD138, beta2 -microglobulin and neopterin serum levels can be also recommended as helpful markers for a solution of this problem. Except of beta2 -microglobulin serum level we did not find statistically significant correlation with activity of multiple myeloma in any of the investigated parameters.

        Key words: Multiple myeloma - Monoclonal gammopathy - Differential diagnosis - Monitoring of activity - Prognostic factors