Treatment Inequity: Examining the Influence of Non-Hispanic Black Race and Ethnicity on Pancreatic Cancer Care and Survival in Wisconsin

INTRODUCTION: We investigated race and ethnicity-based disparities in first course treatment and overall survival among Wisconsin pancreatic cancer patients. METHODS: We identified adults diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System from 2004 through 2017. We assessed race and ethnicity-based disparities in first course of treatment via adjusted logistic regression and overall survival via 4 incremental Cox proportional hazards regression models. RESULTS: The study included 8,490 patients: 91.3% (n = 7,755) non-Hispanic White, 5.1% (n = 437) non-Hispanic Black, 1.7% (n = 141) Hispanic, 0.6% Native American (n = 53), and 0.6% Asian (n = 51) race and ethnicities. Non-Hispanic Black patients had lower odds of treatment than non-Hispanic White patients for full patient (OR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.41–0.65) and Medicare cohorts (OR, 0.40; 95% CI, 0.29–0.55). Non-Hispanic Black patients had lower odds of receiving surgery than non-Hispanic White patients (full cohort OR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.48–0.92]; Medicare cohort OR, 0.57 [95% CI, 0.34–0.93]). Non-Hispanic Black patients experienced worse survival than non-Hispanic White patients in the first 2 incremental Cox proportional hazard regression models (model II HR, 1.18; 95% CI, 1.06–1.31). After adding insurance and treatment course, non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White patients experienced similar survival (HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.88–1.09). CONCLUSION: Non-Hispanic Black patients were almost 50% less likely to receive any treatment and 33% less likely to receive surgery than non-Hispanic White patients. After including treatment course, non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White patient survival was similar. Increasing non-Hispanic Black patient treatment rates by addressing structural factors affecting treatment availability and employing culturally humble approaches to treatment discussions may mitigate these disparities.