Non-white patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM) appear to have a longer diagnostic journey and a greater disease burden than white patients, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Due to the varied and unspecific symptoms associated with SM, patients often wait months or years before receiving an accurate diagnosis. During that time, the clinical manifestations of the disease can seriously impact their quality of life and limit their daily functioning.
Most studies on diagnostic delay and disease burden in SM have been made with predominantly white populations. Therefore, the authors aimed to collect more information on other demographics. To this end, they performed an exhaustive analysis of the clinical data of 40 white and non-white patients with documented indolent SM.
The study included nine Hispanic patients, two Black patients, one Asian patient and three of other/unknown ethnicity.
Researchers observed that non-white patients experienced diagnostic delay more often than white patients, with 47% receiving a diagnosis more than two years after symptom onset compared to 36% of white patients. Approximately 67% of non-white patients and 40% of white patients described their diagnosis journey as “ extremely difficult.”
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Regarding disease burden, patients with non-white ethnicity reported more frequent and severe SM symptoms than their white counterparts. The comparison between non-white and white patients revealed that the former were more likely to experience neurological and gastrointestinal symptoms.
Furthermore, non-white patients were less likely to receive medication, with 42% of non-white patients reporting that they had received treatment, versus 72% of white patients.
Due to the small sample size, the authors said that none of the observed differences had any statistical significance. Therefore, further studies with larger samples are required.
“Non-white patients may experience a greater ISM disease burden and longer diagnostic journey,” the authors wrote. “Given the observed differences, further research on ISM with more diverse patient populations in real-world settings is warranted,” the authors concluded.
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