Racial and ethnic differences in all-cause mortality among Hispanics diagnosed with follicular lymphoma and chronic lymphocytic leukemia in the Bronx, NY

Abstract

Purpose: Research suggests better survival among Hispanics with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) compared to non-Hispanic Whites (NHW); however, less is known about racial/ethnic survival differences in follicular lymphoma (FL) and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

Methods: We identified incident FL and CLL cases diagnosed between 2005 and 2016 at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. Cox proportional hazards regression assessed the association between race/ethnicity and all-cause mortality among FL and CLL separately.

Results: Of the 201 FL patients, 39.3% were NHW, 19.4% non-Hispanic Black (NHB), and 41.3% Hispanic, with a similar distribution among CLL patients. After adjusting for International Prognostic Index factors, sex, and chemotherapy, Hispanics with FL had lower all-cause mortality compared to NHWs (HR = 0.22; 95% CI 0.08-0.63), similar to prior DLBCL findings. All-cause mortality did not differ between NHBs and NHWs for FL or by any race/ethnicity for CLL.

Conclusion: In our diverse, urban population, we found that Hispanic diagnosed with FL had lower all-cause mortality compared to NHWs. We found no significant difference in all-cause mortality between Hispanics and NHWs diagnosed with CLL. Our study adds to the growing literature on racial and ethnic differences in survival among Hispanics with hematologic malignancies.

Keywords: Chronic lymphocytic leukemia; Clinical research; Follicular lymphoma; Non-Hodgkin lymphoma; Race/ethnicity.