In contrast to trends in the general US population, a study of veterans found no racial disparity in 5-year overall survival for patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The finding was presented in a poster abstract at the Association of VA Hematology/Oncology (AVAHO) Annual Meeting. 

“This points to the inequities in access to treatment and preventive health care services as a possible contributing cause to the increased mortality in African Americans in the general US population and a more equitable health care delivery within the Veterans Health Administration system,” reported researchers from Albany Medical Center and Albany Stratton VA Medical Center. 

Despite overall improvements in survival for patients with early-stage NSCLC over the past 2 decades, recent studies of the US population found worse overall survival for patients who are African American, researchers explained. They conducted their investigation to gauge racial disparity solely in the veteran population. 

The study analyzed data from the Veterans Affairs Central Cancer Registry for 2589 African American and 14,184 Caucasian veterans diagnosed with stage I or II NSCLC between 2011 and 2017. 

According to the study, findings were similar between African Americans and Caucasians for the following:  

• distribution of newly diagnosed cases (in each group, about 74% were diagnosed with stage I NSCLC and 26% with stage 2 NSCLC);
• proportion of patients with good performance status (among those with data, about 94% in each group);
• surgery as first-line treatment or in combination with other treatments (about 59% in each group); and
• radiation therapy (approximately 42% in each group).

Furthermore, the study found no statistically significant difference between 5-year overall survival for African Americans and Caucasians (69.81% vs 70.78%) for both stage I and stage II NSCLC. 

The study did identify two differences: Caucasians were more frequently diagnosed after age 60, while more African Americans were diagnosed with adenocarcinoma at diagnosis for both stage I and II disease. 

Reference: 

Tuz Zahra F, Ajmal Z, Moiz Khan A, Gemoets DE, Mehdi S. Racial disparities in treatment and survival for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer: is equal access health care system the answer? Abstract presented at Association of VA Hematology/Oncology (AVAHO) Annual Meeting; September 24-26, 2021.