A retrospective analysis to examine factors associated with mortality in Medicare beneficiaries newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma

Abstract

Older age, male sex, high comorbidity burden, anemia, and hypercalcemia were risk factors for death in newly diagnosed Medicare MM patients. Study limitations included non-causal observational design, non-validated MM algorithm, potential treatment misclassification, and non-availability of prognostic factors including disease staging information, biomarkers, and other laboratory variables. Additional analyses are warranted to understand the relationship between treatments and death.