Disparities in receiving disease-directed therapy, allogeneic stem cell transplantation in non-Hispanic Black patients with TP53-mutated acute myeloid leukemia

Background: Although the clinical outcomes of patients with TP53-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are dismal, subsets of patients eligible for curative-intent therapies may fare better. Because racial disparities are known to affect outcome in hematologic malignancies, the authors sought to explore disparities among patients with TP53-mutated AML. Methods: A multicenter, retrospective study was conducted in a cohort of 340 patients who had TP53-mutated AML (275 non-Hispanic White [NHW] and 65 non-Hispanic Black [NHB]) to analyze differences in treatment and outcome among NHW and NHB patients. Results: The median patient age was comparable between NHW and NHB patients (p =.76). A higher proportion of NHB patients had therapy-related AML (31% vs. 20%; p =.08) and had co-mutations (74% vs. 61%; p =.06). A higher proportion of NHW patients received intensive chemotherapy compared with NHB patients (47% vs. 31%; p =.02). Conversely, a higher proportion of NHB patients received low-intensity chemotherapy (9% vs. 5.5%; p =.02) or best supportive care (22% vs. 7%; p <.001). The complete response rate (including complete responses with or without complete count recovery) was 31% versus 24.5% (p =.39) in NHW and NHB patients, respectively. Only 5% of NHB patients received allogeneic stem cell transplantation compared with 15.5% of NHW patients (p =.02). The proportion of patients who were event-free (18.5% vs. 8.5%; p =.49) or who remained alive (24.9% vs. 8.3%; p =.13) at 18 months was numerically higher in NHW versus NHB patients, respectively, but was not statistically significant. Conclusions: The current study highlights disparities between NHW and NHB patients with TP53-mutated AML. Efforts are warranted to eliminate treatment disparities in minority populations.