African American SMM Patients Presented at EHA 2022

Dr. Malin Hultcrantz Discusses African American SMM Patients Having Lower Risk of Progression Compared to White SMM Patients at EHA22

Abstract Title:

African American patients with smoldering multiple myeloma may have a lower risk of progression compared to White patients.

What is the purpose of this trial? 

The incidence of multiple myeloma (MM) is two to threefold higher in African Americans (AAs) compared to whites when adjusted for socioeconomics, age, and sex. However, there is limited information on whether racial background affects the risk of progression from smoldering MM (SMM) to MM.

Patients with SMM presenting to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center between the years 2000 and 2019 and who identified as either AA or white were included in the study. Baseline characteristics were collected at the time of diagnosis including laboratory, imaging, and pathology reports. Differences in distributions of continuous and discrete characteristics were assessed by Kruskal-Wallis and chi-square tests. Time to progression (TTP) was assessed using the Kaplan-Meier method with log-rank test for comparisons. Univariate and multivariate Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate effects of risk factors on TTP with hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI).

In this video:

Dr. Malin Hultcrantz (Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center— New York, NY) discusses African American smoldering multiple myeloma (SMM) patients having a lower risk of progression compared to White SMM patients 

Conclusion:

In our retrospective single institution experience, AA SMM patients had a lower risk of progression to MM compared to whites. Both groups had similar Mayo-2018 risk scores, however, AA patients had a lower degree of immunoparesis at baseline. Future studies are needed to better understand if these differences are explained by differences in disease biology including genomic mechanisms, immune microenvironment, and systemic immune response.