Guideline-concordant cancer care and survival among American Indian/Alaskan Native patients.

ABSTRACT:

Background

American Indians/Alaskan Natives (AI/ANs) have the worst 5-year cancer survival of all racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Causes for this disparity are unknown. The authors of this report examined the receipt of cancer treatment among AI/AN patients compared with white patients.

Methods

This was a retrospective cohort study of 338,204 patients who were diagnosed at age ≥65 years with breast, colon, lung, or prostate cancer between 1996 and 2005 in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results-Medicare database. Nationally accepted guidelines for surgical and adjuvant therapy and surveillance were selected as metrics of optimal, guideline-concordant care. Treatment analyses compared AI/ANs with matched whites.

Results

Across cancer types, AI/ANs we

SUBMITTER: Javid SH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4219619 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature