Powell, a patient with multiple myeloma, died of COVID-19

The family of former U.
S.
Secretary of State Colin Powell announced that he died at the age of 84 from complications of new coronary pneumonia
.

It is reported that although Powell has been fully vaccinated with the new crown vaccine, he still belongs to the high-risk group due to advanced age and multiple myeloma
.

Multiple myeloma is a malignant hematological tumor caused by plasma cell carcinoma
.

It mainly occurs in the elderly over 60 years old (rarely under 40 years old)

In the human immune system, plasma cells are differentiated from B cells
.

When B cells are stimulated by an antigen, some of them will differentiate into plasma cells and migrate to the bone marrow

Some vaccines have a very long-lasting protective effect, even considered lifelong protection, usually related to the induction of plasma cells
.

But for patients with multiple myeloma, cancerous plasma cells will appear in the body, and these cancer cells will produce a large number of useless antibodies-these antibodies are not produced against a specific pathogen and have no protective effect
.

At the same time, cancer cells that proliferate in large numbers in the bone marrow invade the living space of normal cells including hematopoietic stem cells
.

Therefore, patients with multiple myeloma are often accompanied by anemia and severe immunosuppression, and are extremely susceptible to infection

Other common manifestations include bone pain (the patient’s bone damage is accompanied by the release of calcium in the bone, leading to elevated blood calcium and a series of symptoms), kidney damage (the cancer cells produce a large number of useless antibodies, increase blood viscosity and metabolism, these excesses The pressure of protein leads to impaired kidney function) and so on
.

Patients with multiple bone marrow cancer undoubtedly belong to the immunosuppressed population
.

For this population, the immune response after receiving two mRNA vaccine injections is often very limited, and a third injection is required

Unlike the booster injection of ordinary people, the third injection of immunosuppressed people only hopes to induce at least a certain degree of immune protection, and the interval does not need to be half a year, but the second injection can be given one month after vaccination
.

According to Powell's staff, Powell completed the second dose of COVID-19 vaccination in February 2021
.

He originally planned to receive the third dose of the vaccine last week, but he failed to receive the vaccine due to illness

However, even after the third injection, immunosuppressed people are still at high risk and need to take more protective measures, such as wearing masks and maintaining social distancing
.

People in contact with them need to be vaccinated to reduce the risk of infection

For multiple myeloma itself, many breakthroughs have been made in the treatment in recent years
.

From chemotherapy, to protease inhibitors (a classic case of adverse drug reaction nightmares, "thalidomide" has also been transformed into the treatment of myeloma, and has achieved revolutionary results), and then to antibodies that target myeloma cancer cells Drugs, even CAR-T, thanks to many innovations, the 5-year survival rate of patients has reached 54%, and the average survival time has been mentioned 4-5 years

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