Dr. Kelly on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma

Kevin R. Kelly, MD, PhD, associate professor of Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, discusses a study examining racial disparities in patients with multiple myeloma.

Kelly and his colleagues conducted a review of the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database to look at the differences in outcomes among different ethnic groups in the U.S. The researchers examined patients diagnosed after 1992 and compared their outcome to those diagnosed after 1996, and then compared those to outcomes of patients diagnosed after 2003 to see if there were any improvements in outcomes among specific ethnic groups at different time points.

According to Kelly, they found that outcomes generally continued to improve over time, particularly since 2003, with the introduction of several novel agents. For younger patients, outcomes improved after 1996 with the introduction of autologous stem cell transplant, though not all patients benefited because not all of them qualified for transplant.

In terms of ethnic disparities, the results showed that Hispanic patients are diagnosed at a younger age and continue to have inferior outcomes in terms of responses to treatments. African American patients reportedly had the highest incidence of disease, while Asian patients had the lowest incidence and best outcome with treatments.

Moreover, some new trends have emerged over time, with white patients showing improved median overall survival (OS), and elderly patients demonstrating modest benefits in OS since the advent of novel therapeutics.