The Singular Epidemiology of Plasmacytoma and Multiple Myeloma in French Guiana

The objective was to review a decade of plasmacytoma (PC) and multiple myeloma (MM) data from French Guiana, and to study its spatial and temporal trends.

This was a retrospective study of MM and PC between January 2005 and December 2014 using cancer registry data, including age-standardized incidence and mortality rates.

There were 110 cases of PC and MM (62 women and 48 men), representing the eighth most frequent malignancy in French Guiana. PC and MM were much more common in females. In men, 79% of cases occurred at ≥55 years, and in women, 90% of cases occurred at ≥50 years. The median age at diagnosis was 60 years for men and 66 years for women, while it was 72 years for men and 75 years for women in mainland France. The incidence rate standardized to the world population was 5.9 patients of PC and MM per 100,000 men/year and 7.8 per 100,000 women/year.

In our territory, the incidence of PC and MM was higher and patients were diagnosed at a substantially younger age than in mainland France. Women had a greater incidence than men, and there was an increasing temporal trend of incidence among women. African ancestry and the frequency of obesity, notably among women, could have contributed to this observation.