The time to relapse after chemotherapy for multiple myeloma in a 70-year-old man can be as short as a few months or as long as a few years, depending on the depth of remission from the initial treatment and the growth rate of the tumor cells.
Multiple myeloma is a malignant disease with abnormal proliferation of clonal plasma cells, which is incurable and cannot be cured by either chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation in the clinic, and the vast majority of patients will eventually relapse.
If the patient is in good health, has no genes with poor prognosis, has no risk factors such as extramedullary lesions, reaches complete remission after initial treatment, receives hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and undergoes maintenance therapy after remission, this group of people will generally have a longer time to relapse, and vice versa, they will relapse very quickly.