OBJECTIVES: In the present study, physicians' beliefs about patients' preferences regarding the treatment of MM were explored in a direct assessment and a Discrete Choice Experiment (DCE) and were compared to the previously explored patients' preferences. METHODS: In a preceding DCE with MM-patients, relevant attributes of an ideal MM-treatment were collected by reviewing the literature and by conducting a qualitative study with four focus groups. The attributes were analyzed in a subsequent quantitative study using both a direct measurement (16 items on a 5-point Likert-scale) and a DCE (8 pairs with 8 characteristics). In the present study, 243 physicians answered (76% male, 62% haematology specialists , 70% with >10 MM-patients in the last 12 months) the identical questionnaire. RESULTS: Physicians rated physical quality of life (specified as “reduced mobility or good mobility”), rare side effects and effectiveness aspects (duration of effect, maximal prolonged life expectancy and effectiveness) as most important attributes from the patients' perspective. While the direct assessment gathers a range of important aspects, weighing particular relevant treatment attributes in a DCE is important. Physicians ranked prolonged life expectancy as most relative important and significantly more important than all other treatment attributes. Further treatment options were second most important and significant compared to breaks in therapy and physical quality of life, whereas the patients ordered these two top priorities reversely. CONCLUSIONS: Over a broad range of treatment attributes the physicians' perceptions of preferences were very close to those of MM patients. However in the DCE, after weighing the attributes patients assigned a higher relative importance to further treatment options and “Not always think of the disease”, but less to prolonged life expectancy and self-application.