Racial Disparities in Plasma Cell Leukemia Outcomes Among Hospitalized Patients in the United States

Abstract

Plasma cell leukemia (PCL) is a rare, aggressive subtype of multiple myeloma (MM) with a poor prognosis. Prior studies have shown that racial disparities affect MM patients in various ways, which may affect patients’ outcomes. In this study, we aimed to investigate racial differences in hospitalization outcomes for PCL using Nationwide Inpatient Sample data. Overall, hospitalization rates for PCL tended to decrease over the past decade. Among hospitalized patients with a primary diagnosis of PCL, there was no statistically significant association between race/ethnicity and hospitalization rates, between NH-White patients and NH-Black patients (OR 1.94; 95%CI 0.3-3.54, p 0.95), and Hispanic patients (OR 0.47; 95% CI 0.05-4.23, p 0.5). Additionally, there was no significant association between race/ethnicity and inpatient mortality. The overall lower incidence of PCL, more significant disease burden, and poor prognosis across all groups may contribute to our findings. With increasing evidence that PCL is cytogenetically distinct from MM, more investigation into biological and sociodemographic factors that affect healthcare utilization and treatment outcomes should be carried out.

A Clinical Perspective on Plasma Cell Leukemia: A Single-Center Experience

“…We present a large single-institution body of data on PCL’s clinical, cytogenetic, and radiologic presentation and assess the impact of various therapeutic interventions on patients’ overall survival. The study included 54% Black patients (68% of female patients were Black), providing a unique opportunity to evaluate the clinical features and outcomes in a racially diverse, typically underreported population [ 20 ]. Although studies have shown that Black patients with MM have higher OS compared to White patients when receiving similar therapy, this was not extrapolated to the PCL setting; in our cohort, there was no OS difference between Black and non-Black patients [ 21 ].…”