Racial & Socioeconomic Disparities in Patients with B-Cell Prolymphocytic Leukemia

Background

Leukemia refers to blood cell cancers that originates from the bone marrow. The prolymphocytic leukemia (PLL) subtype consists of the T-Cell prolymphocytic leukemia(T-PLL) and rarer B-Cell prolymphocytic leukemia(B-PLL) variant. B-PLL is harder to treat owing to cytogenetic abnormalities like MYC rearrangement and TP53 mutations. There have been limited studies about this disease, especially outcomes among different patient demographics.

Methods

The National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Result (SEER) registry research database 17(2000 -2020) was used to explore and compare the outcomes for B-PLL in adult & Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) patients. Univariate & multivariate analyses were performed to assess prognostic outcomes. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results

A total of 608 deidentified patients were sampled (375 males and 233 females). Race and ethnicity was categorized to Hispanic & non-Hispanic. The non-Hispanic patients were further subdivided into White, Black, Asian, and Pacific Islanders. Socioeconomic status was associated with urban vs rural dwelling. Significant racial/ethnic differences (p<0.01) were seen in patients for this cancer type with regard to age group and living status. Specifically, there were significantly more Hispanic (all races) patients that were younger i.e., AYA than other racial/ethnic groups (p=.002). Additionally, non-Hispanic Black and White patients were more likely to die from B-PLL compared to other racial/ethnic groups (p=.007).

Discussion

Interesting differences were observed in the age, socioeconomic status, geographical area, and survival status among different race groups with B-PLL. Further research is warranted to characterize the demographic variables that may impact cancer care and survival.