For most types of cancer, determining the stage is very important. The stage of a cancer describes how much cancer is in the body. It helps determine how serious the cancer is and how best to treat it. Doctors also use a cancer's stage when talking about survival statistics.
There is no standard staging system for Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) based on the extent of the disease in the body because this hasn’t been shown to be important when looking at outcomes or deciding on treatment.
Instead, doctors look at other factors, such as age, blood cell counts, the amount of immunoglobulin (IgM) in the blood, and the level of another protein in the blood called beta-2 microglobulin (β2M). People with lower levels of IgM and β2M tend to do better than those with higher levels. People with WM who are older, are anemic (based on a low blood hemoglobin level), or have a low blood platelet count tend to have a poorer outlook.
Experts have used these factors to develop a system that helps predict prognosis (outlook) for patients with WM. It is called the International Prognostic Scoring System for Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia (ISSWM). This system takes into account the factors that seem to predict a poorer outcome, such as:
Except for age, each of these factors is worth a single point. The points are added to make a score, which is used to divide patients into 3 risk groups:
These groups can be used to help predict survival (discussed in more detail in Survival Rates for Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia).
The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Last Revised: July 19, 2018
American Cancer Society medical information is copyrighted material. For reprint requests, please see our Content Usage Policy.