Prognostic nomogram incorporating cytokines for overall survival in patients with newly diagnosed multiple myeloma

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between pretreatment cytokine status and overall survival and establish a prognostic nomogram incorporating cytokines in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM) patients. Methods: A total of 121 patients with NDMM from the Wuhan Union Hospital were included in our study. Patient serum levels of cytokines, including macrophage inflammatory protein 1 alpha (MIP-1 alpha), migration inhibitory factor (MIF), tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha), vascular endothelial growth factor-alpha (VEGF-alpha), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) and soluble interleukins IL-17A, IL-6, IL-21 and IL-10 were assessed before treatment. Based on the results of the multivariate Cox proportional hazards model, we developed a prognostic nomogram. We used the concordance index (C-index) and a calibration curve to measure the predictive performance of the nomogram. Results: Three important variables (lactate dehydrogenase, MIP-1 alpha and creatinine) were incorporated in the nomogram using multivariate Cox analysis. The 3-year overall survival (OS) rate and progression-free survival (PFS) rate were 83.8% and 21.8% in the low-risk group of the nomogram and 17.4% and 8.4% in the high-risk group, respectively. The C-index of the nomogram for OS prediction was 0.80 (95% CI: 0.68-0.92), showing superiority over the predictive power of the Durie-Salmon staging system (C-index = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.49-0.67), International Staging System (C-index = 0.70; 95% CI: 0.61-0.79) and Revised-International Staging System (Cindex = 0.71; 95% CI: 0.63-0.80). The calibration curve showed that the nomogram accurately predicted the 1year, 2-year and 3-year OS of NDMM patients. Conclusion: The established nomogram provides accurate and individualized OS risk estimation for NDMM patients.