Socioeconomic Disparities In Patients With Esophageal Cancer At Time Of Diagnosis: A National Cancer Data Base Analysis

Introduction: There have been noted to be significant gender and socioeconomic disparities in the incidence, prognosis, and clinical outcomes of patients with esophageal cancer. The purpose of this study was to characterize disparities amongst patients with esophageal cancer at time of diagnosis, as stratified by their stage, as there is a paucity of published data in this realm. Methods: We identified patients in the National Cancer Data Base diagnosed with esophageal cancer, from 2004 to 2016 and grouped them by stage: early stage (stage I-III) and advanced stage (stage IV). These groupings were then compared based on various patient demographics and socioeconomic factors, including age, gender, insurance status, education, and income. p-values were determined by chi-square test. Results: 102,540 patients (79.5% male; 84.0% Caucasian) were included in our analysis. There was a statistically significant increase in the diagnosis of de novo metastatic disease seen with younger age (⇐59 years), male gender, lack of insurance coverage, residential communities with lower education, and lower income ( Conclusion: Data from the National Cancer Data Base supports the association of younger age and lower socioeconomic status with higher stage at diagnosis in patients with esophageal cancer, highlighting the need for increased awareness and education in these at-risk subgroups. Citation Format: Meena Sadaps, Neal Mehta, Wei Wei, Katherine Tullio, Amit Bhatt, Alok Khorana. Socioeconomic disparities in patients with esophageal cancer at time of diagnosis: A national cancer data base analysis [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research 2020; 2020 Apr 27-28 and Jun 22-24. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(16 Suppl):Abstract nr 1170.