Disparities in pancreatic cancer among Asian-Pacific Islander and American Indian-Alaskan Native populations.

Abstract

e16275 Background: Pancreatic cancer (PanCan) is the third deadliest cancer in the United States, causing 8.2% of all U.S. cancer deaths. A steady rise in incidence rates has been observed nationally, with striking variation by geographic region and across race/ethnicity. Several studies have demonstrated a disproportionate burden of PanCan incidence on non-Hispanic Black (NHB) as compared to non-Hispanic White (NHW) populations. Yet little attention has been given to the burden of disease on Asian-Pacific Islander (API) and American Indian-Alaskan Native (AI/AN) populations. Additionally, there are limited data on disparities in PanCan incidence by U.S. geographical region. This study investigates age-adjusted incidence rates and annual percent change in PanCan incidence over a 20-year period, emphasizing burden of disease among API and AI/AN persons as well as by U.S. geographic region. Methods: The National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End-Results (SEER) database of 22 registries was used to study newly diagnosed pancreatic cancer cases (ICD-O-3/WHO 2008) for the period 2000-2019. Incidence rates and annual percent change were age-adjusted to the 2000 U.S. standard population and calculated per 100,000 persons using SEER*Stat software. Results: The overall age-adjusted PanCan incidence rates, from lowest to highest, for AI/AN, API, NHW and NHB populations were 6.6, 9.6, 12.5 and 15.3, respectively (per 100,000 persons). When examining each registry separately, two notable outliers were observed in the state of Hawaii where API and AI/AN persons had incidence rates of 13.4 and 24.5 per 100,000 persons, respectively. For all racial/ethnic groups, except AI/AN, the annual percent change in PanCan incidence significantly rose from 2000-2019, with increases of 0.9, 0.6 and 0.3 percent per year for NHW, API and NHB persons, respectively (p < 0.05). Conclusions: A striking observation in this study was the unusually high PanCan incidence rates among API and AI/AN persons in the state of Hawaii, as compared to national rates. Moreover, a significant increase in annual percent change in PanCan incidence was observed over the study period for all racial/ethnic groups, except AI/AN. A key strength of this analysis is the examination of a large, population-based database over an extended time period. The SEER regions examined cover approximately 48% of the U.S. population and intentionally balance on racial/ethnic composition of the U.S. However, the database does not capture cancer incidence data from all U.S. states. Furthermore, this study did not examine sub-categories of API and AI/AN persons, which are groupings that may be heterogeneous with respect to disease burden over time and across U.S. regions. Future efforts will include refining the analysis into more granular racial/ethnic groups and exploring incidence rates among API and AI/AN subgroups in Hawaii.