Chalazia Development in Multiple Myeloma: A New Complication Associated with Bortezomib Therapy

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a neoplasm of plasma cells within the bone marrow. A major impact on improving survival in MM has been the use of the boronic acid-derived proteasome inhibitor bortezomib, a first-in-class selective inhibitor of the 26S proteasome. Ocular side effects of bortezomib are rare. In this report, we present 2 patients with active MM in whom persistent chalazia became a therapy-interfering complication of treatment with bortezomib. Both patients had relapsed ISS III B kappa light chain myeloma, and they were responding to treatment with bortezomib until chalazia – which caused intolerable discomfort – started. In both patients discontinuation of bortezomib was necessary for chalazia to heal, and restarting of bortezomib was associated with relapse of chalazia.