Background: Concentration of serum free light chains has been promoted as an assay in the evaluation of monoclonal gammopathic manifestations. A high false-positive rate in patients without monoclonal gammopathic manifestations and a high false-negative rate in patients with those manifestations have been reported. The false-negative rate for lambda chain-associated lesions is higher than that for kappa chain-associated lesions.
Objective: To assess the serum free light chains in light-chain myelomas.
Methods: Concentrations of involved and uninvolved serum free light chains were retrospectively reviewed in patients with light-chain myelomas.
Results: The highest recorded levels of involved light chains in kappa-chain myelomas and lambda-chain myelomas were comparable. The levels of uninvolved light chains were higher, although not statistically significantly, in lambda-chain lesions.
Conclusions: The results of serum free light chains in light-chain myelomas support the clinical usefulness of the assay in monitoring patients with light chain myeloma.
Keywords: light-chain myeloma; monoclonal gammopathy; multiple myeloma; serum free light chains; serum protein electrophoresis; urine protein electrophoresis.
© American Society for Clinical Pathology 2018. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.