Incidence and Mortality Rates for Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in Puerto Rican Hispanics, 2012-2016

◥ Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for 80% of all leukemias diagnosed in children. Although ALL age patterns are consistent across racial/ethnic groups, their incidence and mor-tality rates are highly variable. We assessed the age-standardized ALL incidence and mortality rates of Puerto Rican Hispanic (PRH) chil-dren and compared them with those of US mainland Hispanics (USH), non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), non-Hispanic Blacks (NHB), and Non-Hispanic Asian or Pacific Islanders (NHAPI).Methods: Differences between racial/ethnic groups were assessed by estimating the standardized rate ratio (SRR) for 2010 to 2014. Sec-ondary data analyses of the Puerto Rico Central Cancer Registry and the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) databases were performed for the 2001 to 2016 period.Results: PRH children had 31% lower incidence rates than USH, but 86% higher incidence rates than NHB. In addition, the incidence trends of ALL increased significantly from 2001 to 2016 among PRH and USH, with 5% and 0.9% per year, respectively. Moreover, PRH have a lower 5-year overall survival (81.7%) when compared with other racial/ethnic groups. Conclusions: PRH children were found to have disparities in ALL incidence and mortality rates compared with other racial/ ethnic groups in the US. Additional research is warranted to identify the genetic and environmental risk factors that may be associated with the disparities observed.Impact: This is the first study reporting the incidence and mortality rates of childhood ALL for PRH and making comparisons with other racial/ethnic groups in the US.