Disparities in localized malignant lung cancer surgical treatment: A population‐based cancer registry analysis

Abstract

Background Lung cancer (LC) continues to be the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Surgical treatment has proven to offer a favorable prognosis and a better 5‐year relative survival for patients with early or localized tumors. This novel study investigates the factors associated with the odds of receiving surgical treatment for localized malignant LC in Tennessee. Methods Population‐based data of 9679 localized malignant LC patients from the Tennessee Cancer Registry (2005–2015) were utilized to examine the factors associated with receiving surgical treatment for localized malignant LC. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses, cross‐tabulation, and Chi‐Square ( 2 ) tests were conducted to assess these factors. Results Patients with localized malignant LC who initiated treatment after 2.7 weeks were 46% less likely to receive surgery (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.54; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.50–0.59; p < 0.0001). Females had a greater likelihood (AOR = 1.14; CI = 1.03–1.24) of receiving surgical treatment compared to men. Blacks had lower odds (AOR = 0.76; CI = 0.65–0.98) of receiving surgical treatment compared to Whites. All marital groups had higher odds of receiving surgical treatment compared to those who were single/never married. Patients living in Appalachian county had lower odds of receiving surgical treatment (AOR = 0.65; CI = 0.59–0.71) compared with those in the non‐Appalachian county. Patients with private (AOR = 2.09; CI = 1.55–2.820) or public (AOR = 1.42; CI = 1.06–1.91) insurance coverage were more likely to receive surgical treatment compared to self‐pay/uninsured patients. Overall, the likelihood of patients receiving surgical treatment for localized malignant LC decreases with age. Conclusion Disparities exist in the receipt of surgical treatment among patients with localized malignant LC in Tennessee. Health policies should target reducing these disparities to improve the survival of these patients.

Cancer worry and its impact on self-reported depressive symptoms among adult males and females in the US: a nationwide sample study

“…Interestingly, when we examined age as a risk factor separately, we found that the prevalence and likelihood of SRDS generally decreased with age in both males and females, contradicting findings from previous studies [ 37 , 38 ]. This suggests that other factors may be influencing the increasing association between age and depressive symptoms, as shown in this study and supported by the fact that cancer has been reported to be more prevalent in older age groups [ 40 , 41 ]. Nonetheless, the depression rate among young adults has been reported to be increasing over the past decades in a most recent study by Thapar et al (2022) [ 42 ].…”