Lauren Laverne, well known from BBC 6 Music and as the host of ‘Desert Island Discs’, has revealed that she’s facing a new health challenge: she’s been diagnosed with smouldering myeloma, a rare disorder affecting blood and bone marrow. She announced this just under two years after celebrating remission from cancer, and that timing has really struck a chord with people following her story.Per The Independent, Laverne, now 48, told her Instagram followers about the diagnosis on Friday, July 17. This time, the picture is different: smouldering myeloma doesn’t usually bring symptoms, and right now, she actually feels well. She isn’t starting treatment because she simply doesn’t need it at this stage — the doctors have reassured her that her personal risk of progression is “pretty low.”“At the moment, I feel OK and don’t need treatment,” she revealed via Instagram, adding, “Most people my age who have it have no idea – it tends to be cancer survivors like me who are diagnosed early as we’re so carefully monitored.”However, Lavern added that “it has nothing to do with my previous illness or my recent surgery”.Since her announcement, the curiosity around smouldering myeloma has gone up.So, what exactly is smouldering myeloma? What does it mean for Lauren, or anyone else who hears this diagnosis?
Smouldering myeloma: What is this blood and bone marrow disorder ?
Smouldering myeloma, sometimes written as smouldering multiple myeloma (SMM) in medical circles, is a disorder that affects plasma cells. Plasma cells are found in the bone marrow and help us fight infections by making antibodies. In smouldering myeloma, these cells start behaving strangely: they multiply more than they should and spit out an abnormal protein doctors call “M protein.”The key here is that smouldering myeloma isn’t full-blown cancer. It sits in the grey area: technically, it’s called “precancerous” or “pre-malignant” because it sometimes leads to active multiple myeloma, a serious blood cancer, but many people just live with it, symptom-free, for years. What’s different from active myeloma is that you won’t see the organ damage or the other tell-tale symptoms.
What causes smouldering myeloma?
That’s the tricky part, as no one completely understands what triggers smouldering myeloma. Medical researchers think it happens once plasma cells collect a few unlucky genetic changes over time. In some cases, it evolves from an even earlier condition called MGUS (monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance), which is actually pretty common among older adults and usually harmless. Most of the time, there isn’t an obvious reason. Doctors are still digging into whether genetics, immune function, or environmental stuff play a role.
What are the early signs?
There’s a reason smouldering myeloma often goes unnoticed: it almost never causes symptoms. You won’t see obvious signs like bone pain, repeated infections, kidney issues, or anaemia, which are common in the fully active disease. Usually, people find out about it by accident — maybe a routine blood test throws up weird results, or, as in Laverne’s case, a doctor pokes around because of low iron levels. She credits her GP for not letting that go and encourages people to trust their own gut when something feels off.
Who is at risk?
Smouldering myeloma is rare, but it shows up more often as people get older, especially after age 50. Men are slightly more likely than women to get it. Data show higher rates among people of African heritage. If you’ve got MGUS or a family member with a plasma cell disorder, your odds bump up. For someone like Laverne, her regular checkups as a cancer survivor meant her diagnosis came early.
What about treatment? Is it curable?
In most cases, the answer is: they wait. Or more accurately, they watch carefully. There’s a lot of blood work, MRI and PET scans, and the occasional bone marrow check. The point isn’t to rush into treatment, but to spot any sign the condition is moving toward active myeloma. People are also urged to keep up with vaccinations, pay attention to infections, and not skip scheduled tests. Because some people with smouldering myeloma have a slightly weakened immune system, infections can be a bigger deal.It’s important to note that as of now, there’s no cure for smouldering myeloma.But “no cure” doesn’t mean “no hope.” Loads of people live for decades and never develop full-blown myeloma or need treatment. For folks at low risk, the usual path is called “active monitoring” or “watch and wait,” which means doctors track the numbers closely and only act if anything starts to change. For those at higher risk, sometimes early treatment is considered, often through clinical trials, to see if progression can be slowed or stopped.
What’s ahead?
For the unversed, Lauren Laverne was diagnosed with cancer in August 2024, and in November of that year, she announced she had received the all-clear.“It’s been a lot, especially coming less than two years after my last diagnosis, but I know that seeing others in the public eye with comparable situations has helped me, so I thought I’d be upfront about it,” she wrote.Laverne’s announcement offered a glimpse into how she’s handling such a rare disease. In fact, Blood Cancer UK noted that over 53,000 people in the UK alone are being actively monitored for blood cancers or related conditions, including smouldering myeloma.“I’m sharing this as one of the many things I’ve learned after going through health challenges in recent years is that talking about this stuff helps people,” she wrote.Her doctor picked it up after spotting persistent low iron, and she’s openly grateful. “This is the second big problem my GP has caught early and it is frankly impossible to adequately express my gratitude,” she wrote.
