What Myeloma Health Disparities Exist for BIPOC Patients?

More Programs and Publications Featuring Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi

In this program:

What are the disparities in multiple myeloma for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) patients? Myeloma experts Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi and Dr. Saad Usmani share information about the incidence of high-risk disease features and the age of diagnosis for active myeloma and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS).

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Dr. Sikander Ailawadhi:
What we have learned from studying myeloma and diagnosis, MGUS, in African Americans and Hispanic and whites is that in African Americans MGUS presents much more frequently. In African Americans, the conversion from MGUS to myeloma happens at a younger age.

*African Americans are diagnosed with myeloma at a younger age than other myeloma patients. Only 5 to 7 percent of minorities go onto myeloma clinical trials compared to a little less than 20 percent of individuals enroll who are eligible in clinical trials in the U.S. *

Dr. Saad Usmani:
We see in our database a median of 58 years of age at the time of diagnosis with active myeloma requiring therapy, compared to 63 years for the Caucasian patients. And then even Hispanics are presenting at a similar age to the Caucasian patients. But interestingly, we see a numerically lower incidence of high-risk features in these patients, and they do quite well in terms of treatment.

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