Background:Patients who progress with Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL) often experience a life marred by pruritus and chronic skin involvement which negatively impacts their quality of life (QoL). In this study, we described racial and clinical disparities in patterns of care in CTCL in a single center retrospective analysis.
Methods:137 CTCL patients were prospectively enrolled, and 104 with complete QoL data were included. We evaluated baseline QoL data, disease characteristics, demographics, and social determinants of health. QoL metrics included the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General (FACT-G), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), visual analog scale, and Skindex-16. Clinical variables included mSWAT, TNMB stage, and therapy. Descriptive statistics analyzed demographics and degree of skin involvement by race (White vs. Black). Between-group comparisons were conducted using chi-squared, Fisher's exact, and ANOVA tests.
Results:
Among 104 patients in the cohort, there was even distribution of male (52.04 %) and female (47.96 %) patients. The population was diverse with 43.2% white and 56.7% black patients. QoL measures including FACT-G scores differed by race with black patients showing a lower average score (73.00) versus white patients (80.23), p = 0.101, indicating poorer QoL. Additionally, black patients demonstrated higher median GAD-7 score compared to white patients indicating greater anxiety. Updates on multivariable associations between disease characteristics, demographics, and race with QoL measures will be presented at the forum. Conclusions:Among black patients, a decrease in QoL metrics compared to white patients was observed. Multivariable analyses will be updated to further investigate these differences.
