OBJECTIVES: Multiple myeloma (MM) is rare in young patients (< 40 years at diagnosis), representing <2% of all patients with MM. Little is known about the disease characteristics of these patients. There are studies describing young MM patient population represented in smaller registries but large-scale characterization from nationwide data is limited. We aim to characterize the demographic and clinical characteristics in this patient population.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study from a large deidentified database of US health insurance claims. The study population included individuals under 30 years at diagnosis with at least one ICD-10 code for MM (C90.0) between January 1, 2019, and October 31, 2022. The index date was defined as the first MM diagnosis date. We also assessed the most prevalent diagnosis and procedure codes within the 6 months pre- and post-index to understand this patient population.

RESULTS: A cohort of 3417 patients (53% female patients; 47% male patients) were identified. Among this cohort, 25.5% were pediatric patients aged 0 – 17 years; 21.5% aged 18 – 24 years; 53% aged 25 – 30 years. Top prevalent comorbidities that increased in the 6 months pre- and post-index: Complications of stem cell transplant (↑2 fold), immunodeficiency due to drugs (↑1.7 fold) and anemia (↑1.4 fold). Top procedures: Transplantation of donor bone marrow (↑2 fold) and Pegaspargase (↑ 1.2). Top drugs: Bortezomib (↑8 fold), Doxorubicin (↑1.3 fold)

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings indicate that anemia and Bortezomib are more prevalent in young MM patients. These findings are consistent with published literature. Additionally, we uncovered an interesting trend with several top clinical features related to stem cell or bone marrow transplant which might indicate the current treatment patterns in this population. Additional analysis is planned to evaluate the association of these clinical and sociodemographic features to understand the risk factors in young MM patients.