Cholesterol levels in patients with multiple myeloma

Abstract

Hypocholesterolemia is seen in solid tumors and some hematological malignancies. We assessed cholesterol levels and the relationship between these levels and types and stages of multiple myeloma (MM) in the patients with MM. One-hundred two patients (60 male and 42 female) of mean age 59 +/- 11 years with MM were enrolled to this study. While 71.6% of the patients were Ig G type, 80.4% of the patients were at stage III. In the control group, there were 71 healthy persons (42 male and 29 female) of mean age 58 +/- 8 years. The levels of total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) in the patients with MM were significantly lower than the controls (p < 0.001). There was no difference for the levels of very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglyceride between the two groups (p > 0.05). Lipid parameters were not different between Ig types (p > 0.05). The levels of TC and LDL-C in the patients with stage I were higher than those of stages II and III (p < 0.001 and p < 0.005, respectively). The levels of TC and LDL-C in the controls were not higher than the patients with stage I (p > 0.05). HDL-C levels in the patients with stage III were lower than controls (p < 0.001). Hypocholesterolemia are seen in the patients with MM. Hypocholesterolemia may be due to increased LDL clearance and utilization of cholesterol by myeloma cells.

Multiple Myeloma Patients Have a Specific Serum Metabolomic Profile That Changes after Achieving Complete Remission

“…All saturated, monounsaturated, and essential fatty acids and their polyunsaturated derivatives are decreased, apparently as a consequence of the disease itself (23). Decreased cholesterol levels in multiple myeloma patients have been previously described, probably representing increased LDL clearance and utilization of lipids and cholesterol by myeloma cells (24). In fact, it has been shown that NS0 myeloma cells are naturally cholesterol dependent; probably due to a biochemical deficiency in the demethylation of lanosterol to C-29 sterols (25,26).…”

A phase II clinical trial does not show that high dose simvastatin has beneficial effect on markers of bone turnover in multiple myeloma

“…The compliance of the patients with regard to intake of study medication was controlled by measuring the level of cholesterol in serum samples taken during treatment, and all patients showed the expected reduction of cholesterol, although the baseline serum level of cholesterol is lower in MM patients than in healthy individuals [31].…”

Exploiting the mevalonate pathway to distinguish statin-sensitive multiple myeloma

“…[43][44][45] It was also recently reported that MM patients generally present with hypocholesterolemia. 46 When taken together, one could speculate that this may be a consequence of dysregulated LDLR expression in myeloma cells, resulting in increased clearance of LDL-cholesterol in those patients. Experimental validation of this hypothesis will be required to determine whether a differential exists between MM cells and normal cells that can be exploited in biomarker discovery and therapeutic targeting.…”