Abstract A27: Diversity in multiple myeloma clinical trials
Authors: Duma Narjust , Velez Miguel Gonzalez , Vera-Aguilera Jesus , Parrondo Richardo , Mariotti Veronica , Paludo Jonas , Wang Yucai , Go Ronald , Adjei Alex 
Published: February 2019

Background: Multiple myeloma (MM) accounts for approximately 1% of all cancers and 10% of hematologic malignancies in the United States (U.S.). MM occurs in all races, but the incidence in African Americans is two to three times higher than in non-Hispanic whites. MM is also slightly more frequent in men than women (1.4:1). Many clinical trials lack appropriate representation of specific patient populations, limiting the generalizability of the evidence obtained. Therefore, we determined the representation of ethnic minorities, the elderly, and women in MM clinical trials.

Methods: Enrollment data from all therapeutic trials reported as completed in clinicaltrial.gov from 2000 to 2016 were analyzed. Clinical trials including other hematologic malignancies and with recruitment outside of the U.S. were excluded. Enrollment fraction (EF) was defined as the number of enrollees divided by the 2013 SEER database MM complete prevalence. Chi-square test was used to estimate differences in categorical data.

Results: Out of 177 MM clinical trials (CT), 78 (44%) reported ethnicity with a total of 12,055 enrollees. Regarding enrollees' ethnic composition, 84% were non-Hispanic White (NHW), 8.6% African American (AA), 2.8% Asian, 1.8% Hispanic, and 0.1% Native American/Alaskan Indian. Out of those 78 CT, 52 (66%) were phase II, 15 (19%) phase III, and 11 (14%) phase I. Most of the results were published from 2012 to 2016 (74%). Forty-six (59%) trials were sponsored by industry, 7 (9%) by NCI, and 25 (32%) were investigator initiated. Participation in CT varied significantly across ethnic groups, NHW were more likely to be enrolled in CT (EF of 0.23) than AA (EF of 0.08, p &lt; 0.0001) and Hispanics (EF of 0.05, p&lt; 0.0001). Males had a higher recruitment rate than females (58% vs. 42%), but this could be explained by the higher incidence of MM in males. Enrollees' median age was 62 years. Younger patients (&lt; 65 years) were more likely to be enrolled in CT than the elderly (66% vs. 34%, p&lt;0.0001). Industry-sponsored trials were less likely to recruit AA compared with investigator-initiated trials (7.6% vs. 12%, p&lt;0.01).

Conclusions: Despite the higher incidence of MM in African Americans and the elderly, the former only represented 8.6% of the study participants and 66% of these were less than 65 years of age; therefore, we are lacking data in the tolerability of these new agents in our aging MM population. We also observed that industry studies were less likely to recruit AA patients. Collaborations between investigators, sponsors, and the community are necessary to increase our minority and elderly patients' access to clinical trials.

Citation Format: Narjust Duma, Miguel Gonzalez Velez, Jesus Vera-Aguilera, Richardo Parrondo, Veronica Mariotti, Jonas Paludo, Yucai Wang, Ronald Go, Alex Adjei. Diversity in multiple myeloma clinical trials [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Tenth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2017 Sep 25-28; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2018;27(7 Suppl):Abstract nr A27.