Contemporary patterns of racial/ethnic disparities in surgical treatment and overall survival for localized resectable non-small cell lung cancer in the United States.

Abstract

e20057 Background: Racial disparities in the surgical treatment of early stage lung cancers are well documented for African-Americans relative to Whites. However, there is a paucity of contemporary data regarding lung cancer treatment disparities for other minority racial/ethnic groups. We sought to compare: i) contemporary rates of surgery, ii) and overall survival (OS) for resectable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), across several minority populations in the United States (US). Methods: We identified new diagnoses of stages IA-IIIA NSCLC (AJCC7) from 2010-2015 among adults (20 years+) in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) 18 registry. We compared rates of surgery +/- radiotherapy (RT) for stage IA NSCLC, and surgery +/- RT +/- chemotherapy for stages IB–IIIA NSCLC, among the following racial/ethnic groups: Non-Hispanic Whites (whites), Non-Hispanic Blacks (blacks), Hispanics, Asians or Pacific Islanders, and American Indians/Alaska Natives (native Americans). We also calculated and compared 5-year OS rates across these groups. Results: There were 339,912 cases of newly-diagnosed stages IA, IB, IIA, IIB, and IIIA NSCLC identified for analysis. Receipt of surgical treatment +/- RT for stage IA NSCLC was lower in blacks (63.5%), and native Americans (64.2%) than whites (69.4%), as well as for stage IIB NSCLC (whites 66.7%; blacks 56.7%; native Americans 55.6%). Blacks had lower rates of surgery relative to whites across the other NSCLC stages studied but no disparities were noted for Hispanics and Asians/Pacific Islanders. 5-year age-adjusted OS for stage IA-IIIA NSCLC were significantly lower for native Americans (62.3%, 95% CI 58.1%, 66.3%) and blacks (68.1%; 95% CI 67.4, 68.9%) relative to whites (69.2%; 95% CI 69.0%, 69.5%) with relative risks of 1.11 (95% CI 1.04, 1.19) and 1.02 (95% CI 1.01, 1.03), respectively. This inferior OS persisted for blacks even among those treated with cancer-directed surgery. Conclusions: Disparities in rates of surgical treatment and OS for resectable NSCLC persist for blacks and native Americans. Although it is unclear if inferior OS outcomes for blacks are solely attributable to lower rates of surgery, systems-based interventions are needed to help ensure equal and optimal receipt of surgery for resectable NSCLC across all racial/ethnic groups in the US.