This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Lower socioeconomic status associated with increased mortality risk in Canadian patients with cancer

Booth CM. Cancer. 2010;doi:10.1002/cncr.25427.

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

Differences in survival across socioeconomic groups persisted regardless of cancer stage at time of diagnosis and despite universal health insurance, according to the findings of a study conducted in Canada.

Using the Ontario Cancer Registry, the researchers analyzed data from patients with breast, colon, rectal, non–small cell lung, cervical and laryngeal cancer diagnosed between 2003 and 2007.

The researchers divided the population into five quintiles, with quintile 1 being the lowest, at a median household income of $24,000, and quintile 5 being the highest, at $55,000.

There were 44,802 new cases seen within 3 months of diagnosis at the Regional Cancer Centers; stage at diagnosis was available for 38,431 cases. Researchers evaluated the relationship among socioeconomic status, stage of disease and survival.

Small differences were observed in stage distribution for breast and rectal cancers. For all cancers combined, those in quintile 1 were less likely (26%) than those in quintiles 2 to 5 (29%) to have stage I disease and more likely to have stage IV disease (23% vs. 20%; P<.001).

Further, the researchers observed gradients in 5-year OS and 3-year cancer-specific survival for all six cancers, across all quintiles: breast (OS=7%; P<.001; cancer-specific survival=4%; P<.001); colon (OS=8%; P<.001; cancer-specific survival=3%; P=.002); rectal (OS=9%; P,.001; cancer-specific survival=4%; P=.096); NSCLC (OS=3%; P=.002; cancer-specific survival=2%; P=.317); cervical (OS=16%; P<.001; cancer-specific survival=10%; P=.118) and laryngeal (OS=1%; P=.045; cancer-specific survival=3%; P=.011).

Other factors, such as differences in disease biology, comorbidity, access to therapy and quality of care may also effect survival, according to the researchers.

“Further work is needed to better understand such factors and to develop better strategies that reduce disparities in the outcome of patients with cancer,” the researchers said.

Follow HemOncToday.com on Twitter.