The impact of race and ethnicity on diffuse large B-cell lymphoma outcomes within the veterans health administration (VHA)

Abstract

We performed a retrospective chart review of 6266 randomly selected DLBCL patients treated in the VHA nationwide between 1/1/2011 and 12/31/2021. The 3178 patients who met inclusion criteria were predominantly male (97%) and white (75%). Median age of diagnosis for Black patients was 63 years vs 69 years for the entire cohort (p < 0.001). However, patients in each race/ethnicity subgroup presented with similar rates of stage I/II and III/IV disease, IPI score, cell of origin and HIT status. Outcomes analysis revealed similar treatment, response rates, median overall survival, and 1-, 3-, and 5-year survival across all subgroups. Hispanic patients had a 21% lower risk of death (HR = 0.79) than white patients, and Black patients had no significant difference in survival (HR = 0.98). This large retrospective study shows that when standard of care therapy is given within an equal access system, short-term treatment and survival outcomes are the same for all races.

Keywords:

• Lymphoma and Hodgkin disease
• health disparities
• African Americans
• Hispanics
• diffuse large B-cell lymphoma
• disparities

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.