Background Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological malignancy with increasing prevalence. While randomized controlled trials have demonstrated survival improvements, they underrepresent older and comorbid patients. Real-world data from observational cohorts are therefore essential. Objective To assess the comparability of patient, hospitalization and center characteristics for patients treated in centers included in the French Epidemiology of Multiple MYeloma (EmmY) cohort with those treated in centers of the French-speaking Intergroupe Francophone du Myélome (IFM) network (including EmmY) and those treated in all centers treating MM in France between 2017–2023. Methods We analyzed French national hospital discharge data (PMSI) to identify adults hospitalized with MM (ICD-10 C90) between August 2017 and December 2023. Patient demographics, comorbidities, hospitalization characteristics, and center profiles were compared between the three cohorts using standardized differences. Results We identified 69,276 patients (including 50,243 IFM and 33,785 EmmY), 1,871,369 hospitalizations (including 1,484,288 IFM and 1,022,462 EmmY), and 323 centers (including 118 IFM and 70 EmmY). EmmY centers were larger and treated a higher mean proportion of MM patients (2.7%) per center than IFM (2.4%) and all MM centers (1.3%). No clinically meaningful differences were observed between EmmY and IFM centers regarding patient age, sex, comorbidities, treatment patterns, or hospitalization outcomes. Conclusions The EmmY cohort is highly comparable to patients treated in specialized MM centers and those within the broader French MM population, supporting its validity as a robust real-world data source. It is well-suited for evaluating treatment pathways and outcomes in real-world MM populations, including patients underrepresented in randomized controlled trials.
Olivier et al. (Tue,) studied this question.