1. Remoteness of residence predicts tumor stage, receipt of treatment, and mortality in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma
- Author
-
Elizabeth E. Powell, Paul J. Clark, Patricia C. Valery, Belaynew W Taye, and Gunter Hartel
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Cirrhosis ,RC799-869 ,migration ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Interquartile range ,Internal medicine ,Credible interval ,Medicine ,Hepatology ,business.industry ,Gastroenterology ,Retrospective cohort study ,Original Articles ,hepatocellular carcinoma ,Diseases of the digestive system. Gastroenterology ,medicine.disease ,mortality ,Comorbidity ,remoteness of residence ,age at diagnosis ,030220 oncology & carcinogenesis ,Hepatocellular carcinoma ,Etiology ,Original Article ,030211 gastroenterology & hepatology ,Residence ,business - Abstract
Background and Aim Surveillance and early detection and curative treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are the mainstay of improving survival for patients, but there are several barriers to achieving this goal. We reported the impact of remoteness of residence on receipt of treatment, tumor stage, and survival in patients with HCC in Queensland. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 1651 HCC patients (147 migrants) from 1 January 2007 to 31 December 2016. We used Wilcoxon rank‐sum test to compare the median age at the time of diagnosis and Bayesian Weibull accelerated failure time regression to identify independent predictors of time to death. Results The median survival time after HCC diagnosis was 9.0 months (interquartile range 2.0–24.0). Metropolitan residence (P = 0.02), non‐English language (P, In a cohort study of 1651 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma, we found patients living in rural and remote areas were more likely to present with late stage of tumor, less likely to receive curative treatment such as surgical resection, and experience 25% shorter survival time. In a multivariate analysis, remote residence, preferred language, older age at presentation, poorly differentiated tumor, and presence of medical comorbidity were associated with poorer HCC survival, possibly because of limited access to surveillance and curative treatment.
- Published
- 2021
- Full Text
- View/download PDF