Temporal trends and factors associated with receipt of systemic therapy among patients undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy.

Abstract

503 Background: We evaluated temporal patterns in the utilization of systemic therapy among patients undergoing cytoreductive nephrectomy (CN) for metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma (mRCC) from a large national cancer registry and assessed patient characteristics associated with receipt of systemic treatment. Methods: We reviewed the National Cancer Database to identify patients with stage IV RCC who underwent CN between 1998-2010. Systemic therapy was defined as any treatment with immunotherapy and/or chemotherapy (including targeted agents). We evaluated the association between clinicopathologic features and receipt of systemic therapy using multivariable logistic regression with generalized estimating equations, and assessed the interaction of treatment with time, stratified as immunotherapy (1998-2004) versus targeted-therapy (2005-2010) eras. Results: Of 22,409 patients with mRCC undergoing CN, 8,830 (39%) received systemic therapy. Receipt of systemic therapy increased from 32% in 1998 to 49% in 2010 (p<0.001), largely due to increased utilization of chemotherapy (13.9% vs. 46.7%; p<0.001). Following adjustment, increasing patient age (51-60 years: OR 0.82 [CI 0.73-0.92]; 61-70 years: OR 0.67 [CI 0.59-0.76]; ≥71 years: OR 0.36 [CI 0.31-0.43]), as well as coverage with Medicaid (OR 0.61 [CI 0.5-0.74]), Medicare (OR 0.70 [CI 0.62-0.79]), or no insurance (OR 0.75 [CI 0.63-0.91]) were associated with decreased utilization of systemic therapy. Although use of systemic therapy in the elderly (≥71 years) and in patients with Medicare/Medicaid remained lower throughout the study period, each of these cohorts was significantly more likely to receive systemic treatment in the targeted versus immunotherapy era (all p values <0.05). Conclusions: Utilization of systemic therapy among patients undergoing CN has increased over time, coinciding with the introduction of targeted therapies. Nevertheless, still less than half of such patients receive systemic treatment. While the etiology for lack of treatment is likely multifactorial, the potential health policy implications of continued disparities in care warrant further investigation.