Racial Disparities in Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma

By Chadi Nabhan, MD, MBA, FACP, Mustafa Wasifuddin, MD - Last Updated: December 14, 2023

Mustafa Wasifuddin, MD, a second-year internal medicine resident at Brookdale University Hospital and Medical Center, joined Chadi Nabhan, MD, MBA, FACP, host of The HemOnc Pulse, to discuss his research on racial disparities in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) at the 65th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting & Exposition.

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First, Dr. Nabhan asked how and why he decided to conduct this research.

“I noticed that there’s not much data on [DLBCL] in adolescents and young adults [AYAs],” Dr. Wasifuddin began. “I decided to combine my interests with a dearth of literature.”

Using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program database, Dr. Wasifuddin examined disparities in incidence and survival outcomes between different races. “Interestingly, I noticed that incidence didn’t go down equally amongst all ethnicities,” he said.

According to Dr. Wasifuddin, the Black patient population showed the highest decrease in incidence of DLBCL in the AYA group, while the White population showed the lowest decrease in incidence of DLBCL.

“An interesting finding was that the only ethnicity out of all the racial groups to show an increased incidence was the Asian and Pacific Islander group,” he said. “I was really curious [as to] why this happened. I looked at studies across China, Japan, and South Korea with a similar racial makeup, and they all had an increasing incidence of DLBCL, and they could not explain exactly why this happened.”

Dr. Wasifuddin found that certain risk factors, such as Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), which is a risk factor for DLBCL, has a higher prevalence among the Asian and Pacific Islander patient population.

However, because EBV was present in such a small percentage of patients with DLBCL, Dr. Wasifuddin hopes to expand his research and explore the role of genetic and environmental factors in the incidence of DLBCL.

Post Tags:ASHLymphoma2023
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