**3. The aims of MM treatment**

Despite the huge advance in the field of MM treatment, the disease has still remained incurable.

The main goal of treatment is the prolongation of survival. By the 1980's to 1990's, the survival of untreated patients had increased from mere months to 3-5 years. The introduction of intensive treatment, such as high-dose chemotherapy with autologous stem cell transplanta‐ tion (ASCT), further prolonged the overall survival. Novel agents, including immunomodu‐ latory drugs, such as thalidomide and lenalidomide, and the proteosome inhibitor bortezomib have dramatically changed the results in the past decade. Besides overall survival, disease-free survival has also been prolonged and the life expectancies of refractory and relapsed patients are also largely improved [4].

The only curative treatment option is allogeneic stem cell transplantation due to antitumor immunity mediated by donor lymphocytes. However, morbidity and mortality related to graft-versus-host disease remain a challenge and regarding the average age of MM patients it remains an option for only a minority of patients.

Depending on stage of the disease, median survival varies between 5-10 years for patients with ISS stage I disease undergoing stem-cell transplant and/or receiving novel anti-myeloma regimens [5]. However, outcomes have typically been poor for patients with high-risk disease and despite recent therapeutic advances the outlook for such patients remains unfavorable [6].
