Compared with White patients with MS, Black and Hispanic patients with MS have different demographic
characteristics and disease burdens, according to results published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related
Disorders. Lilyana Amezcua, MD, MS, and colleagues conducted the CHIMES open-label single-arm
multicenter phase 4 study of self- identified Black and Hispanic patients with relapsing MS aged
18-65 and an Expanded Disability Status Score (EDSS) of 5.5 or less. Among 182 patients enrolled,
113 (62.1%) were Black and 69 (37.9%) were Hispanic; mean baseline EDSS was 2.4 and 62.6% of
patients were treatment-naive. Using the pooled non-Black/Hispanic group in the OPERA trials as a
reference, patients in CHIMES were younger, had a higher mean BMI, and had a greater T2 lesion
volume but a similar T2 lesion number on MRI. Black and Hispanic patients with MS “have been
consistently under-represented in clinical trials, limiting the understanding of disease biology
and response to treatment in this population,” Dr. Amezcua and colleagues wrote. “These differ-
ences could have an impact when assessing clinical outcomes.”
