Abstract
Introduction:
Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) is a rare and incurable lymphoma. There have been significant changes in management of WM over last decade with incorporation of monoclonal antibodies, and other novel therapies. We conducted this study to evaluate survival rate among patients with WM.
Methods:
We selected patients with WM diagnosed during 1992-2018 from Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) 13 database. We analyzed 1- and 5-years relative survival (RS) rates using SEER*stat program. We used Z test to compare relative survival trend over 3 decades (1 st: 1992-2000, 2 nd: 2001-2010, 3 rd: 2011-2018) among patients with WM by race (white, other), age (>18 years, 18-64 years and >65 years) and sex.
Results:
A total of 5,690 (1,582; 2,141; and 1,967) adults patients were diagnosed with WM during 1992-2018 (1 st, 2 nd, and 3 rd decades), 86% were white and 14% were other races combined. There were 1,959 and 3,731 patients in age group (18-64 and >65years) respectively. During 1 st, 2nd and 3 rd decades examined, 1 and 5 year RS in patients with WM were (87.3%, 92.0% and 94.7%) and (67.7%, 81.3%, and 85.7%) respectively. Improvement in RS was noted in both younger and older age group and sex examined. (Table 1)
White patients with WM have 1 and 5 year RS (87.3%, 92.6%, 95.1%) and (68.2%, 82.1%, 86.3%). This improvement RS over 3 decades was statistically significant with Z value >1.65/P value <0.05. Other races with WM have 1 and 5 year RS (86.5%, 86.9%, 90.4%) and (64.3%, 72.3%, 78.1%) during 1 st, 2nd and 3 rd decades.
Conclusion: This study showed that relative survival rates of WM have significantly improved over past 3 decades. Improvement in survival trend was mainly driven by white patients. Patients with other races do not have statistically significant improvement in relative survival rates during last 3 decades. Health disparities in minority population with WM warrants further research.
No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
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