Trends in Disparities in Receipt of Adjuvant Therapy for Elderly Stage III Colon Cancer Patients

3596 Background: It is well established that age and comorbidities have significant impact on adjuvant chemotherapy delivery to stage III colon cancer patients. This study examines differences in the hospital and surgeon-specific probabilities of adjuvant therapy delivery to stage III colon cancer patients by comorbidity burden and age. Methods: Patients who underwent surgery for stage III colon cancer from 2004-2013 were included from the New York State Cancer Registry and the Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System. Comorbidity burden was defined with the Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Multilevel logistic regressions characterized variation in adjuvant chemotherapy delivery among individual hospitals and surgeons by CCI and age. Results: 11575 patients met inclusion criteria, of which 59% received adjuvant therapy. Younger age, lower CCI, and high volume surgeons/hospitals were associated with delivery of adjuvant therapy (p < 0.01). Median time to chemotherapy was 43 days among CCI = 0 vs 48 among CCI≥2. The risk adjusted hospital and surgeon-specific probabilities of adjuvant delivery decreased with increasing CCI and age. The proportion of variation attributable to surgeons, vs hospitals, increased with CCI and age. Hospital variation between the highest and lowest hospitals increased from a 6-fold difference among CCI = 0 to an 11 fold difference among CCI≥2. Surgeon variation increased from a 14-fold difference among CCI = 0 to a 40 fold difference among CCI≥2. Conclusions: Variation in adjuvant chemotherapy delivery to stage III colon cancer patients increased with higher comorbidity burden and age. While a larger proportion of variation is attributable to surgeons among patients with the highest CCI and the most elderly, the vast majority of the variation is related to hospital factors. Even taking into account that some patients may be unfit for adjuvant therapy, this variation in treatment is alarmingly high. [Table: see text]

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Is it Possible to Predict Benefit from 5FU Adjuvant Therapy in Stage III Colon Cancer Patients?

EBioMedicine ◽

10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.06.011 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (8) ◽

pp. 780-781

Author(s):

Serena Bonin

Keyword(s):

Colon Cancer ◽

Adjuvant Therapy ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Stage Iii ◽

Stage Iii Colon Cancer

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Reasons for and outcomes of adjuvant chemotherapy choices in elderly patients with resected stage III colon cancer.

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2012.30.4_suppl.571 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 30 (4_suppl) ◽

pp. 571-571 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Jenny Ko ◽

Hagen F. Kennecke ◽

Howard John Lim ◽

Sharlene Gill ◽

Ryan Woods ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Colon Cancer ◽

Adjuvant Chemotherapy ◽

Adjuvant Therapy ◽

Elderly Patients ◽

Cancer Patients ◽

Treatment Effect ◽

Advanced Age ◽

Stage Iii ◽

Stage Iii Colon Cancer ◽

To Receive

571 Background: Research suggests that elderly cancer patients are commonly undertreated, but the precise reasons for this are unclear. Robust clinical data on the optimal adjuvant chemotherapy regimen for elderly colon cancer patients are also lacking. Our aims were to: 1) evaluate the impact of advanced age on choice of adjuvant chemotherapy (none vs. capecitabine vs. FOLFOX) for curatively resected colon cancer; b) determine the reasons for selecting a particular regimen; and 3) examine whether treatment effect on outcomes is modified by age. Methods: All patients diagnosed with stage III colon cancer between 2006 and 2008, and referred to any 1 of 5 regional cancer centers in British Columbia, Canada were identified. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize treatment patterns among young patients (YPs) aged <70 years vs. elderly patients (EPs) aged >/=70 years. Multivariate logistic regression models were constructed to evaluate the association between adjuvant chemotherapy and cancer-specific survival (CSS) in YPs and EPs. Results: In total, 810 patients were identified: 51% were male, 52% YPs and 48% EPs, and 74% received adjuvant chemotherapy. When compared to YPs, EPs had worse ECOG and more comorbidities (both p<0.001). EPs were less likely than YPs to receive adjuvant chemotherapy (57% vs. 91%, p<0.001). Frequent reasons for no treatment included age, comorbidities, and small perceived benefit from adjuvant therapy. Among treated pts, EPs were less likely to receive FOLFOX (32% vs. 74%, p<0.0001) in favor of capecitabine due to patient preference, age, and comorbidities. In multivariate analyses, receipt of either FOLFOX or capecitabine was correlated with improved CSS compared to surgery alone. The effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on CSS was not modified by age (interaction p for capecitabine and age = 0.26; interaction p for FOLFOX and age = 0.40). Conclusions: EPs with stage III colon cancer frequently received either no adjuvant treatment or capecitabine monotherapy due to advanced age and co-morbidities. The treatment effect of adjuvant therapy on CSS is similar among EPs and YPs. Adjuvant chemotherapy should not be withheld from colon cancer patients based on advanced age alone.

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