Patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who were of Hispanic ethnicity had significantly worse overall survival compared with patients who were non-Hispanic, according to data from a minority predominant cohort.
Karun Neupane, MD, of the Jacobi Medical Center/Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, and colleagues presented the results of a single-center retrospective observational study investigating whether survival outcomes differences by race or ethnicity for T-ALL during the Eleventh Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) Annual Meeting.
The study included 59 patients with T-ALL with a median age of 20 at diagnosis. A little less than one-third (29%) of patients were of Hispanic ethnicity. Of those who were non-Hispanic, 19 patients were Black, 10 were White, and 8 were other races.
There was no significant difference in overall survival (OS) by disease immunophenotype, sex, or race. However, patients of Hispanic ethnicity had significantly worse OS compared with people of non-Hispanic ethnicity (hazard ratio, 4.787; 95% CI, 1.4-5.9; P=.0046). The worse OS remained significant even after data were adjusted for age (ages younger than 15 vs 15 and older).
There was no difference in survival by ethnicity for patients who underwent hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Among patients who relapsed, those who received upfront HSCT while in first complete remission had significantly higher OS compared with patients who received chemotherapy alone (P=.025).
Although the sample size of the study was small, these results indicate that further studies are needed to identify modifiable factors to address this disparity, according to the researchers.
Reference
Neupane K, Bazarbachi A, Dahal R, et al. Hispanic patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoblastic lymphoma had worse overall survival in a minority predominant cohort. ALL-040. Presented at the Eleventh Society of Hematologic Oncology Annual Meeting; September 6-9, 2023; Houston, Texas.