Effect of racial disparities on cancer survival in hematologic malignancies: a population-based analysis of SEER data (2009–2019)

Background Health disparities exist in all aspects of cancer care, and Black patients continue to have the highest cancer mortality. Given major advancements in the treatment of hematologic malignancies, we evaluated whether disparities worsened in hematologic malignancies with longer relative survival rates (RSR) among Black patients compared to White patients.Methods We used Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program registries to calculate RSR for Black and White patients diagnosed with 16 hematologic malignancies from 2009 to 2019. Overall survival was estimated using method of Kaplan-Meier. Fine-Gray model associated patient and disease characteristics with cancer-specific mortality. Multivariable models determined if racial disparities varied across RSR and over time.Results Among 329,008 patients, Black patients had lower median overall survival (90 months versus 99 months) and 5-year RSR (66.6% versus 69.6%), and higher cumulative incidence rate of cancer-specific mortality, with increasingly larger interracial gap at later time points. Black patients had higher risk of death for all hematologic malignancies included, and the disparity widened as RSR improved. Over time, the negative association between race and cancer-specific mortality decreased.Discussion Although racial disparities have improved, Black–White disparities remain prevalent in hematologic malignancies and the largest gap exists for diseases with the longest survival.