Variation in incidence and survival by ethnicity for patients with myeloma in England (2002–2008)

Abstract

Incidence and relative survival of myeloma by ethnic group was estimated using data from cancer registries in England (2002–2008). Multiple imputation was used to address missing ethnicity data. In total 24 361 cases of myeloma were identified. Age-standardized incidence rate (ASIR) (per 100 000) was higher in the Black ethnic category at 15.00 (95% confidence interval [CI] 13.50–16.40), than amongst South Asians (ASIR = 5.45, 95% CI 4.76–6.14) or the White group (ASIR = 6.11, 95% CI 6.00–6.22). There was a lower risk of death in the Black group for both 1- and 3-year survival (hazard ratio [HR]_{1 year} = 0.66, 95% CI 0.55–0.79; HR_{3 year} = 0.69, 95% CI 0.58–0.83) and South Asians at 1, 3 and 5 years (HR_{1 year} = 0.65, 95% CI 0.51–0.82; HR_{3 year} = 0.72, 95% CI I 0.57–0.90; HR_{5 year} = 0.68, 95% CI 0.50–0.92) when compared to the White population. Further study of differences in myeloma and precursor biology between population groups is important.

Keywords::

• Multiple myeloma
• ethnicity
• multiple imputation
• outcome
• incidence

Acknowledgements

This article is a contribution from the National Cancer Intelligence Network (www.ncin.org.uk) and the English registries (www.ukacr.org). It is based on the information collected and quality assured by the National Cancer Registration Service in England.

We are grateful to members of the NCIN Site Specific Clinical Reference Group for Haematological Malignancies for their support.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal.

While undertaking this work, Eva Morris was funded by the Cancer Research UK Bobby Moore Fund (C23434/A9805) and the Medical Research Council's Medical Bio-informatics Hub (MR/L01629X/1).