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. 2015;56(9):2643-9.
doi: 10.3109/10428194.2015.1011156. Epub 2015 Mar 8.

Socioeconomic status is independently associated with overall survival in patients with multiple myeloma

Mark A Fiala  1 , Joseph D Finney  1 , Jingxia Liu  2 , Keith E Stockerl-Goldstein  1 , Michael H Tomasson  1 , Ravi Vij  1 , Tanya M Wildes  1
Affiliations

Socioeconomic status is independently associated with overall survival in patients with multiple myeloma

Mark A Fiala et al. Leuk Lymphoma. 2015.

Abstract

Population-based studies suggest that black patients with multiple myeloma (MM) have a higher mortality rate than white patients. However, other studies suggest that this disparity is related to socioeconomic status (SES) rather than race. To provide clarity on this topic, we reviewed 562 patients diagnosed with MM at our institution. Patients with high SES had a median overall survival (OS) of 62.8 months (95% confidence interval [CI] 43.1-82.6 months), compared to 53.7 months (45.2-62.3 months) and 48.6 months (40.4-56.8 months) for middle and low SES, respectively (p = 0.015). After controlling for race, age, year of diagnosis, severity of comorbidities, stem cell transplant utilization and insurance provider, patients with low SES had a 54% increase in mortality rate relative to patients with high SES. To support our findings, we performed a similar analysis of 45,505 patients with MM from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-18 (SEER) database. Low SES is independently associated with poorer OS in MM.

Keywords: Multiple myeloma; cancer health disparities; race; socioeconomic status.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest:

Dr. Keith E. Stockerl-Goldstein is on the Speaker’s Bureau for Celgene and Millennium.

Dr. Tanya M. Wildes’ research is supported by Grant Number KM1CA156708 and K12CA167540 through the National Cancer Institute (NCI) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Grant Number UL1 TR000448 through the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of NCI, NCATS or NIH.

The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Patients in the highest SES tertile (≥ $57,177 median household income) had a median OS of 62.8 months (mos) (95% CI 43.1–82.6 mos), compared to 53.7 mos (45.2–62.3 mos) and 48.6 mos (40.4–56.8 mos) for the middle and lowest tertiles, respectively (p =0.015).
Figure 2
Figure 2
In univariate analysis, there was no difference in OS based on race.
Figure 3
Figure 3
In the SEER-18 registries database, patients in the highest SES tertile (≥ $50,760 median household income) had a median OS of 38.0 mos (95% CI 36.8–39.2 mos), compared to 32 mos (30.9–33.1 mos) and 29 mos (28.1–29.9 mos) for the middle and lowest tertiles, respectively (p <0.001).
Figure 4
Figure 4
In univariate analysis of the SEER-18 registries database, there was no difference in OS based on race.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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