BCAN 2019: Race and Guideline Based Treatment in Bladder Cancer

Washington, DC (UroToday.com) Samuel Washington, MD from the University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA discussed race and guideline based treatment of bladder cancer. Access to care and socioeconomic status are known predictors for this disparity. They used the NCDB to determine how race impacted treatment received and survival. A total of 51,380 patients with cT2-T3 only 43% received treatment and 35% blacks received treatment. Most patients were treated at an academic cancer center and approximately 50% received guideline recommended treatment. Survival benefit was not the same for all, however, blacks continued to have worse survival (HR 1.12). Receipt of guideline treatment subgroup analysis eliminated this difference. These findings suggest access to care to guideline-recommended care may help improve disparity in survival. Limitations of this research include selection bias, inability to determine chemotherapy type and of known/unknown confounders which may affect these results. Further research are needed to understand both the access to care differences as well as the underlying biology between race/ethnicity to improve survival in those at greatest risk.

Presented by: Samuel Washington, MD, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

Written by: Stephen B. Williams, MD, Medical Director for High Value Care; Chief of Urology, Associate Professor, Director of Urologic Oncology, Director Urologic Research, The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, TX and Ashish M. Kamat, MD, Professor, Department of Urology, Division of Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX at the 2019 Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network (BCAN) Think Tank August 8-10, 2019 - the Capital Hilton, Washington, DC, USA

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