Many researchers have observed a disparity in overall survival between non-Hispanic Black Americans and non-Hispanic white Americans with multiple myeloma. However, the clinical characteristics and overall survival of Hispanic Americans with the disease remain unknown. This analysis aimed to characterize multiple myeloma in Hispanic Americans.
A total of 939 patients were analyzed, with all patients diagnosed with multiple myeloma between 2000 and 2017. Hispanic Americans accounted for 281 of these patients. Of the remaining patients, 489 were non-Hispanic Black Americans, and 169 were non-Hispanic white Americans. The Connect MM Registry was used as a validation cohort.
Hispanic Americans were found to have a higher incidence of multiple myeloma, in general, and stage I of the disease, in particular, when compared with non-Hispanic white Americans. The age at presentation was also five years younger on average.
No difference was found in cytogenetics among Hispanic Americans and non-Hispanic Black Americans and non-Hispanic white Americans. Multivariate analysis found that only high-risk disease and response to first-line treatment significantly affected survival.
The researchers concluded that Hispanic Americans experience a greater incidence of multiple myeloma, younger age of disease presentation, and have a higher rate of severe renal dysfunction at diagnosis than non-Hispanic white Americans. Notably, they assert that with equal access to first-line therapy, the survival rate of Hispanic Americans could be equivalent to that of non-Hispanic white Americans [1].
Source:
[1] Kaur, G., Mejia Saldarriaga, M., Shah, N., Catamero, D. D., Yue, L., Ashai, N., Goradia, N., Heisler, J., Xiao, Z., Ghalib, N., Aaron, T., Cole, D., Foreman, R., Mantzaris, I., Derman, O., Bachier, L., Sica, R. A., Kornblum, N., Braunschweig, I., . . . Janakiram, M. (2021). Multiple myeloma in Hispanics: incidence, characteristics, survival, results of discovery, and validation using real-world and connect MM registry data. Clinical Lymphoma Myeloma and Leukemia, 21(4), e384–e397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clml.2020.11.013