A Heavy Burden ( For Some More Than Others )
For Myeloma Treatment , Experience Matters
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A Heavy Burden ( For Some More Than Others )
Researchers from the American Cancer Society have found that cancer types carry very different burdens ( in terms of disability-adjusted life-years [ DALYs ], or the number of healthy years of life lost ), and vary among patients of different racial and ethnic groups .
The overall burden of cancer in 2011 was more than 9.8 million DALYs . The 10 cancer types with the “ heaviest ” burden were :
LUNG CANCER 24 % ( of the burden )
BREAST CANCER 10 %
COLORECTAL CANCER 9 %
PROSTATE CANCER 5 % LEUKEMIA 4 %
LIVER CANCER 4 %
PANCREATIC CANCER 6 %
BRAIN CANCER 3 %
NON-HODGKIN LYMPHOMA 3 %
OVARIAN CANCER 3 %
Certain ethnic and racial groups experienced a heavier burden than others . For example , age-standardized DALYs lost ( per 100,000 individuals ) for leukemia were :
115 For Non-Hispanic Blacks and Non-Hispanic Whites
98 For Hispanics 82 For Non-Hispanic Asians
Source : Lortet-Tieulent J , Soerjomataram I , Lin CC , et al . U . S . burden of cancer by race and ethnicity according to disability-adjusted life years . Am J Prevent Med . 2016 ; 51:673-81 .
For Myeloma Treatment , Experience Matters
Treatment at a higher-volume facility was associated with a lower risk of death for patients with myeloma , according to a study of survival outcomes among 94,722 patients treated at one of 1,333 facilities .
Facilities were classified by quartiles according to average annual volume of myeloma patients , with patients who were treated at the lowest-volume centers having the shortest median overall survival .
Specifically , patients treated at quartile 1 facilities had a 22 % higher risk of death compared with those treated at quartile 4 facilities ( hazard ratio = 1.22 ; 95 % CI , 1.17-1.28 ; p < 0.001 ).
Quartile Center 1
Quartile Center 2
Quartile Center 3
Quartile Center 4
26.9 months ( treating an average of < 3.6 myeloma patients / year )
29.1 months ( treating an average of 3.6-6.1 myeloma patients / year )
31.9 months ( treating an average of 6.1-10.3 myeloma patients / year )
49.1 months ( treating an average of > 10.3 myeloma patients / year )
MONTHS 10 20 30 40 50
Source : Go RS , Bartley AC , Crowson CS , et al . Association between treatment facility volume and mortality of patients with multiple myeloma . J Clin Oncol . 2016 October 23 . [ Epub ahead of print ]
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