Racial and ethnic characteristics and cancer-specific survival in Primary Malignant Cardiac Tumors

Background There is limited insight into the epidemiological characteristics and effect of race and ethnicity on Primary Malignant Cardiac Tumors (PMCTs). Objectives Comparison of clinical characteristics and cancer-specific survival outcomes of major races in the United States from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End-Result (SEER) registry. Methods ICD-O-3 codes were used to identify PMCTs for the years 1975 to 2015. Three major races were identified—“White”, “Black”, and “Asian/Pacific Islander”. Cancer-specific survival outcomes were compared using Kaplan-Meier analysis across and amongst races, based on tumor histology. A subgroup analysis of cancer-specific survival was performed between “Hispanics” and “non-Hispanics.” Results Seven hundred and twenty patients were identified−47% females and 79% White, mean age at diagnosis (47 ± 20 years). Black patients were significantly younger (39 ± 18 years) and presented more commonly with angiosarcomas (53%). Non-angiogenic sarcomas and lymphomas were the most common tumors in the White (38%) and Asian/Pacific Islander (34%) cohorts. For a median follow-up period of 50 (IQR3-86) months, cancer-specific survival (mean ± SD, in months) was worse in Blacks (9 ± 3) as compared to Whites (15 ± 1) and Asian/Pacific Islander (14 ± 1) ( p- value; Black vs. White 0.001; Black vs. Asian/Pacific Islanders = 0.017, White vs. Asian/Pacific Islanders = 0.3). Subgroup analysis with 116 (16%) Hispanics (40% females; mean age of 40 ± 20 years) showed a longer mean cancer-specific survival of 16.9 ± 2.4 months as compared to 13.6 ± 1.1 months in non-Hispanics ( p = 0.011). Conclusion Black and non-Hispanic patients have poorer cancer-specific survival in PMCTs.