Impact of socioeconomic disparities on diagnosis and overall survival in small cell lung cancer: A National Cancer Database analysis.

Abstract

8515 Background: Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for approximately 13% of all lung cancer diagnoses in the United States. The demographics of this disease have evolved over time; in the 1970s 28% of patients with SCLC were female, while in the early 2000s, 50% were female. Remarkable differences in incidence, mortality rates, and trends by race and geographic location have also been noted. There has been a paucity of data regarding changes in epidemiology and patient demographics in SCLC since the early 2000s. Given recent treatment advances, the impact these factors have on patient outcomes for SCLC requires further evaluation. Methods: We identified all patients with SCLC in the NCDB from 2004 to 2016. Differences in demographic, disease, and treatment characteristics were assessed by year of diagnosis using Chi-square test. The effect of age, race, insurance status, income, distance to treatment center, and education level on overall survival (OS) was assessed by log-rank test. Results: There were 137,253 cases of SCLC diagnosed in the NCDB between 2004-2010 and 124,796 cases between 2011-2016. Patients diagnosed after 2010 were significantly older, had more comorbidities, had more stage IV disease, were more frequently treated at academic centers, more commonly had government primary payer insurance, and lived significantly further away from their treatment center. There were significant differences in gender, race/ethnicity groups, education level, and residence area, with more females, more African Americans, more patients without a high school diploma, and more rural patients diagnosed after 2010. OS in general improved between the two time periods, with median OS of 8.41 months (95% CI: 8.34-8.48%) and 5-year OS rate of 6.8% (95% CI: 6.6-6.9%) in patients diagnosed between 2004-2010 and median OS of 8.61 months (95% CI: 8.54-8.67%) and 5-year OS rate of 8.7% (95% CI: 8.5-8.9%) in patients diagnosed after 2010, despite an increase in stage IV disease in the latter group. Some of the differences in demographics were associated with changes in OS. Older patients, male patients, Caucasian patients, patients with stage IV disease, patients with government primary payer insurance, and rural patients all had significantly worse OS. Patients without comorbidities and patients treated at an academic center had significantly better OS. OS was found to significantly increase as both income and education level increase. Conclusions: SCLC continues to be a frequent cancer diagnosis. Despite improvement in overall survival during the time frame studied, there were significant disparities noted in key demographics that negatively affect access to healthcare resources, including rural communities, distance to an academic center, income, insurer, and education level. Collective efforts to impact these disparities will likely lead to improved outcomes for patients with SCLC.