The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidelines on the diagnosis and management of myeloma
NICE guidelines are produced for the NHS, local authorities, care providers, charities, and anyone who has a responsibility for commissioning or providing public health and social care services in England.
Its guidance is produced by healthcare professionals, NHS staff, patients and carers, members of the academic world, and other members of the wider healthcare and public health community.
The new guidelines recommend the use of serum protein electrophoresis and serum free light-chains (sFLC) to confirm the presence of a paraprotein indicating possible myeloma or monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). The guidelines state that the urine Bence-Jones protein test (uBJP) was not included, as urine testing is only done in a fraction of patients, and “…could have resulted in potential missed diagnoses if the sFLC test was not performed as an alternative”.
This brings us one step closer to getting Freelite implemented as one of the main tools for the diagnosis of Multiple Myeloma.
The guidance is expected to be taken into full consideration by health and social care professionals and organisations when making decisions with the person receiving care.
You can see the guidelines here.