Comorbidities Influence Survival in Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Advancing age is associated with poorer prognosis in patients with multiple myeloma (MM). Comorbidities increase in prevalence with age, but the impact of comorbidities on survival in patients with MM is not known. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of comorbidities on survival in multiple myeloma. Methods: All patients (pts) with MM diagnosed and treated at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri from 1999–2010 were identified from the Barnes-Jewish Hospital Oncology Data Services Database. The institution's cancer registrars retrospectively collect clinical, demographic and survival data in accordance with the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer guidelines. Comorbidities are graded as None, Mild, Moderate or Severe using the ACE-27 comorbidity index [Piccirillo et al. J Reg Mgmt 1999]. Patients without data on comorbidities were excluded from the study. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS), calculated from the date of diagnosis and censored at the time of last follow-up. OS was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method, and compared between comorbidity groups using the Log-Rank test. The independent effects of age and comorbidities were evaluated using Cox Proportional Hazards Modeling. Results: 569 patients were identified in the database. Median age of patients was 59 years (range 33–91 years); 54.8% were male, 45.2% were female; 74.9% were white, 23.2% were black, and 1.9% were other races/ethnicities. Based on the ACE-27 comorbidity index, 181 pts (31.8%) had no comorbid medical conditions, 226 (39.7%) had mild comorbidities, 115 (20.2%) had moderate comorbidities, 47 (8.3%) had severe comorbidities. In the entire cohort, the median OS was 49.2 months [95% confidence intervals (CI) 42.9 – 55.6 months]. Survival by comorbidity category and age group are shown in table 1. The differences in survival between comorbidity groups in each age group and the entire cohort were statistically significant (log-rank p<0.001). Severe comorbidities were associated with a significantly increased risk of death after controlling for age (HR 1.97, P=0.002). Conclusion: The presence and severity of comorbidities confer a poorer prognosis in patients with MM. Further study is needed to determine to what extent comorbidities directly impact survival versus impacting therapeutic decision-making and tolerance of therapy.

Vij:Celgene: Honoraria, Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Bristol-Myers Squibb: Honoraria, Speakers Bureau.