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Devarakonda et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2017;3:100-4 Journal of
DOI: 10.20517/2394-4722.2017.19
Cancer Metastasis and Treatment

www.jcmtjournal.com
Original Article Open Access

Impact of health care insurance on

overall survival of patients with multiple

myeloma and monoclonal gammopathy of

undetermined significance

Srinivas S. Devarakonda , Runhua Shi , Ellen Friday , Reinhold Munker , Jonathan Glass , Francesco Turturro 1,3
1
2
1
1
1
1 Department of Medicine, Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Shreveport, LA 71103, USA.
2 Department of Medicine, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, LA 71103, USA.
3 Department of Lymphoma/Myeloma, MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
Correspondence to: Dr. Srinivas S. Devarakonda, Department of Medicine, Feist-Weiller Cancer Center, Louisiana State University Health
Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA 71103, USA. E-mail: sdeva1@lsuhsc.edu
How to cite this article: Devarakonda SS, Shi R, Friday E, Munker R, Glass J, Turturro F. Impact of health care insurance on overall survival of
patients with multiple myeloma and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2017;3:100-4.
ABSTRACT
Article history: Aim: Health care insurance improves access to care and thus outcome in patients with
Received: 13-03-2017 solid tumors. Little information on the impact of health care insurance on hematological
Accepted: 22-05-2017 malignancies including multiple myeloma exists. The authors aimed to analyze the effect
Published: 09-06-2017 of health care insurance on the survival of patients with multiple myeloma (MM) and
monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) at Louisiana State
Key words: University Health Sciences Center in Shreveport, LA. Methods: Two hundred fifty seven
Multiple myeloma, patients were reviewed, of which 208 had MM and 49 had MGUS. Results: One hundred
monoclonal gammopathy of and seventy seven patients (69%) were funded and 80 (31%) were non-funded. Funded
undetermined significance, patients with MM had an overall survival (OS) of 6.2 years compared to 3.8 years for non-
health care, funded patients (P < 0.001). Survivals were not significantly affected by race or gender. The
health insurance, analysis demonstrates that funded patients with MM and MGUS patients have statistically
outcomes, significant increased OS compared to patients with no insurance. Conclusion: This study
survival showed that patients with multiple myeloma and MGUS with health care insurance have
longer overall survival when compared to non-funded patients.

INTRODUCTION Americans. [1,2] MM is preceded by an asymptomatic
premalignant proliferation of plasma cells termed
Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common “monoclonal gammopathy of uncertain significance
hematological malignancy in the United States and the (MGUS)”. [3-6] MM and MGUS are twice as common
most common hematological malignancy in African- in African-Americans as in Caucasians and more

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