Ronald A. Sacher, MD

Multiple myeloma is a fatal disease, and long-term remissions have only recently become possible. The median age of onset is 65 years, and the incidence in the United States is 20,000 per year.

It is well recognized that the blood supply is the safest that it has ever been. The probability of acquiring a transfusion-transmitted infection is small. Interventions such as the introduction of highly sensitive laboratory screening methodologies, as well as donor selection with focused health questionnaires, have contributed to this low risk. Yet morbidity from blood transfusions still occurs from a condition called transfusion-related acute lung injury, which now represents the most common cause of transfusion-related morbidity and mortality.