The announcement that Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s wife and member of the E Street Band, has multiple myeloma is raising awareness for the rare blood cancer.
In the new documentary “Road Diary: Speaking to Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Scialfa said that she underwent the test in 2018, and Variety was the first site to publish this information. According to her, she has been challenged to perform because of the illness.
It was released Sunday at the Toronto Film Festival. In fact, Scialfa has been conspicuously missing in most of the recent tours by the E Street Band. A spokesman for Springsteen did not have anything to say or offer any additional data about this.
Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells or a type of white blood cell manufactured in the bone marrow. The disease, as well as the therapies for the disease, including stem cell transplants and immunotherapies, expose the patients to higher risks of infections such as respiratory infections. Multiple myeloma cannot be cured, and some of the patients require treatment throughout their entire lives.
“Myeloma treatment is a marathon,” said Dr. Manni Mohyuddin, a multiple myeloma specialist at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Cancer Institute. “This is not the type of cancer where you can operate and do away with it completely to get cured once and for all. This is a cancer that needs constant treatment and a lifetime tracking.”
Multiple myeloma affects about 35,000 Americans every year, and the risk increases with age, being male, and having obesity. But doctors are yet to determine why that is so.
In the majority of cases, the cancer is not hereditary; however, if a close relative, such as a sibling or parent, had myeloma, one’s risk may be somewhat higher. That genetic risk seems to be even more amplified in Black people as compared to the white population, noted Dr Joseph Mikhael, the chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation.
It is important to note that the majority of people who suffer from multiple myeloma are usually diagnosed after they reach 60 years or before they reach 80 years.
