Black patients with stage III colon cancer were less likely than non-Hispanic whites to receive adjuvant chemotherapy during 1990-1991 and again in 2010, report Dr. Caitlin C. Murphy and her coauthors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
An analysis of data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program found the disparity disappeared after 1991, but a significant difference reemerged in 2010. Receipt of chemotherapy increased among white and black patients during the years 1990 and 1991 (white, 58.2%; black, 45.2%) to the year 2005 (white, 71.8%; black, 71.4%) and decreased in 2010 (white, 66.3%; black, 56.9%). There was no difference in the proportion of white and black patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy in 1995 (white, 58.3%; black, 57.9%), 2000 (white, 66.1%; black, 66.2%), and 2005, but there were marked disparities in the period encompassing 1990 and 1991 and in the year 2010, Dr. Murphy and her coauthors report.
In regression models, black race was still associated with lower receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy after adjusting for age, comorbidity, insurance, and year of diagnosis (relative risk, 0.82; 95% confidence interval, 0.72-0.93).
The racial disparity in chemotherapy receipt in 2010 may reflect differences in the ability to pay for cancer treatment during the economic downturn that followed the 2008 financial crisis. Black Americans were disproportionately affected by the 2008 recession, and 28% reported losing a job as a result, the investigators wrote.
Read the full article here: http://dx.doi.org/10.1200/JCO.2015.61.3026