Racial disparities in the receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients with resected stage I-III pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Abstract

357 Background: Adjuvant chemotherapy for resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma is a category 1 NCCN recommendation, however studies have shown that many patients do not go on to receive chemotherapy after definitive surgery. Whether racial disparities exist for receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy is unknown. Methods: The National Cancer Database was used to identify 28,255 patients with non-metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma who underwent definitive surgery between 2005-2014. Multivariable logistic regression defined adjusted odds ratio (AOR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy by race. Additional variables included in the model were age, sex, stage, node positivity, comorbidity index, facility type and insurance. Among those receiving chemotherapy, multivariable logistic regression assessed odds of treatment with multiagent chemotherapy and among those not receiving chemotherapy, predictors of chemotherapy refusal were assessed. Results: Compared to white patients, black patients were less likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy (AOR 0.74, 95% CI 0.64-0.85, p < 0.001) and multiagent adjuvant chemotherapy (AOR 0.80, 95% CI 0.72-0.88, p < 0.001). The disparities were limited to patients with comorbidity score of 0 and persisted when analyses were restricted to only academic cancer centers. Among 2,405 patients not treated with chemotherapy, black patients had lower odds of refusing chemotherapy (AOR 0.72, 95% CI 0.55-0.93, p = 0.01). Conclusions: In this nationally representative study, black patients were less likely to receive NCCN-guideline concordant treatment for resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma; this disparity did not appear to be driven by increased refusal of treatment by black patients. Given that differences in quality of care may contribute to disparities in cancer survival, our findings suggest that outcomes for black patients could be improved by increasing the proportion receiving guideline-concordant adjuvant chemotherapy. Further investigation is needed to identify factors leading to the observed differences in this study, such that appropriate interventions can be undertaken to mitigate this disparity.