The association of race and curative-intent treatment with mortality outcomes among early-stage NSCLC.

Abstract

e20563 Background: Racial disparities in early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) survival have persisted between blacks and whites in the past few decades. The role of receipt of curative-intent surgery and/or stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) in this disparity is unclear. We examined the associations of race/ethnicity and curative-intent treatment (surgery and/or SRBT) with mortality outcomes among early-stage NSCLC patients, using population-based data from Florida, the third largest state in the US and the second state in the number of cancer cases diagnosed annually. Methods: Florida Cancer Data System (FCDS) data were used to estimate cancer-specific mortality for all patients diagnosed in the state between 2007 to 2018 for each racial/ethnic group: non-Hispanic black (NHB), Hispanic, and Asian/Pacific Islander (API)) and non-Hispanic whites (NHW). FCDS were further individually linked to population-based discharge data (94% match rate) containing patient-level comorbidities and treatment-specific information. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were applied to study the association of race/ethnicity and curative-intent treatment with lung cancer-specific mortality (LCSM). Competing risk analysis (deaths by other causes) for LCSM was performed. Results: We identified 63,872 early-stage NSCLC patients; 83.2% NHW, 6.6% NHB, 8.7% Hispanic, 0.77% API, and 0.79% other races; 72.2% of patients received curative-intent treatment (surgery and/or SRBT). The median lung cancer-specific survival time for all patients was 5.43 years (95% CI, 5.30-5.56). After inclusion of all clinical and sociodemographic factors including stage at diagnosis and comorbidities, race/ethnicity (NHB vs NHW: hazard ratio [HR], 1.06; 95% CI, 1.00-1.11) and curative-intent treatment (SBRT vs curative-intent surgery: HR, 1.87; 95% CI, 1.78-1.97;) were both independently associated with LCSM. Nevertheless, after combining the effect of race/ethnicity and curative-intent treatment in the same fully adjusted model, NHB patients who received curative-intent treatment experienced nearly identical survival as their NHW counterparts (HR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.87-1.03). Similar findings were observed in competing risk analysis (subdistribution hazard ratio [sHR], 0.97; 95% CI: 0.89-1.02). Conclusions: In this racially diverse population, receipt of curative-intent treatment revealed comparable survival between NHB and NHW patients. The results underscore the importance of considering receipt of (specifically) curative-intent treatment rather than receipt of any form of surgery or radiotherapy in racial/ethnic survival disparities. The uptake of curative-intent surgery and SBRT, which currently stands at 56.5% and 9.4% respectively, should be increased to improve survival outcomes for early-stage NSCLC for all.