Defining Outcomes in Hispanic Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Patients.

Multiple studies evaluating outcomes for oncology patients have demonstrated inferior overall survival rates among African-Americans. Hispanics comprise the largest ethnic minority in the United States. Surprisingly outcomes for Hispanic aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients have not been evaluated and are therefore largely unknown. We aim to identify differences in epidemiology, treatment modalities and outcomes of Hispanic patients treated for aggressive NHL at our institution between the years 2000-2004.

We reviewed the medical records of 82 patients with aggressive type NHL who were identified using the tumor registry. Exclusion criteria include indolent and highly aggressive lymphomas per WHO classification as well as lymphomas related to AIDS or organ transplantation. Standard statistical analyses, including Kaplan-Meier survival estimates and Chi-squared analysis for group comparisons were used. P value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Of the 82 patients, 46 were self-reported Hispanic in origin; 36 were non-Hispanic. There were no significant differences with respect to age at diagnosis, LDH level, stage, or complete remission rate. Kaplan-Meier estimate of median overall survival (OS) of the cohort was 3.8 years with no statistically significant differences observed between the Hispanic and non-Hispanic ethnic groups. (P = 0.816).

Ethnic patterns of disease occurrences have been reported, but responses to treatment and outcome for Hispanic patients have not been established. Interestingly from our preliminary analysis, there appears to be no statistically significant difference in overall survival between Hispanic and non-Hispanic patients. Further evaluation is warranted.

No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.