Survival in Hodgkin's Lymphoma Unaffected by Race

March 14, 2008

Black children with Hodgkin's lymphoma have lower event-free survival but similar overall survival as white children with lymphoma, researchers report in the March 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

FRIDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) -- Black children with Hodgkin's lymphoma have lower event-free survival but similar overall survival as white children with lymphoma, researchers report in the March 10 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Monika L. Metzger, M.D., from St Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and colleagues retrospectively analyzed clinical outcomes based on race in 327 children and adolescents (262 white, 65 black) with Hodgkin's lymphoma treated with contemporary therapy.

The researchers found that significantly more black patients lived in poor counties but were clinically similar to the white patients. Black patients were 3.7 times more likely to relapse a year or more after diagnosis and had a significantly lower five-year event-free survival rate (71 versus 84 percent). However, the five-year overall survival rate was similar for black and white patients (94.7 versus 94.4 percent). Low hemoglobin concentration independently predicted poor survival and treatment failure, while black race independently predicted treatment failure.

"Black children with Hodgkin's lymphoma have lower event-free survival than white children, but both populations have the same five-year overall survival," Metzger and colleagues conclude.

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