Racial disparities persist in multiple myeloma care, outcomes

(HealthDay)—There are persistent disparities in multiple myeloma (MM) care for non-Hispanic (NH)-Blacks and Hispanics compared with NH-Whites, according to a study published online July 18 in Leukemia & Lymphoma.

Samer Al Hadidi, M.D., from the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and colleagues analyzed trends of MM-related hospitalization and incidence of in-hospital mortality in a 10-year retrospective cross-sectional analysis of inpatient hospitalizations from 2008 to 2017 using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample.

The researchers found that NH-Blacks had a higher prevalence of MM-related hospitalizations than NH-Whites (476.0 versus 305.6 per 100,000 hospitalizations). Compared with NH-Whites and NH-Blacks, Hispanics had higher MM-related in-hospital mortality (6.2 versus 5.3 percent). Among all MM patients, there was a statistically significant decline seen for in-hospital mortality, except among NH-Blacks, who had the highest inpatient mortality in recent years. Fewer transplants, more blood product transfusions, fewer palliative care consults, less inpatient chemotherapy, and more intensive care utilization were seen for NH-Blacks in a multivariate analysis.

"The improvement in the trend of in-hospital mortality for NH-Whites and Hispanics suggests that NH-Blacks are not receiving the benefits of MM treatment advancements, a disease that affects them more frequently than other groups," the authors write. "The persistence of MM outcome disparities constitutes a clarion call for an immediate strategy to address these long-lasting inequalities."

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.