371 Background: Insurance status predicts access to medical care in the United States. Previous studies show uninsured and government insured patients have worse outcomes than those with private insurance. However, the impact of insurance status on survival in patients with Gastrointestinal Neuroendocrine Tumors (GI-NETs) is unclear. We evaluate the association between insurance status and survival in patients with GI-NETs. Methods: Our analysis includes 2022 patients who had surgical resection of GI-NETs at 8 institutions in the U.S. Neuroendocrine Study Group. Patients were categorized based on insurance as private (PI), government (GovI) or uninsured (UI). Factors associated with insurance status were assessed by uni- and multi-variate analysis. Primary endpoint was overall survival. Results: Patient demographics between the insurance categories were similar in ECOG performance status and tumor size at presentation. GovI patients had a higher median age than PI or UI (66 vs. 54 vs. 56 years respectively; p<0.01). Uninsured patients were more likely African American (21.5%) or Latino (5%) compared to PI (11.5%, 2%) or GovI (15%, 2%) (p<0.01). The UI group had a higher proportion of patients who underwent no surveillance imaging post-operatively (39%) compared to PI (26%) and GovI patients (26%) but this was not statistically significant (p=0.15). There was no difference in operative intent (curative vs. palliative) between groups (p=0.2). Five-year overall survival was 86% for PI, 82% for GovI, and 73% for UI patients (p<0.01). On multivariate regression analysis, being uninsured was independently associated with reduced survival when controlling for ASA Class, ECOG, race, tumor location, neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy, Somatostatin analog, or radiation therapy (HR 1.39, p = 0.012). Conclusions: This is the first systematic analysis of insurance status’s association with overall survival in GI-NET patients. Our analysis shows uninsured or government insured patients have shortened survival compared to the privately insured. The disparity is likely underrepresented in this study, as we examined only patients who underwent surgical resection.
Effect of blood transfusion on survival for resected pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: analysis of the U.S. neuroendocrine study group
