Race and Socioeconomic Treatment Disparities Among Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer Patients Identified in Study Coauthored by Analysis Group Researchers
April 16, 2024
Identifying differences in patient care is critical to addressing disparities in such care. Yet there had been no large-scale studies on differences in the treatment of, survival of, or access to care among patients with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC) since novel therapies became available for the disease in 2014. To remedy this gap, researchers including Analysis Group Managing Principal Hongbo Yang, Vice President Wei Gao, and Manager Wei Song coauthored a study on treatment intensification (TI) and overall survival (OS) in Medicare and Veterans Health Administration (VHA) patients with mCSPC.
In the study, the coauthors provide an overview of treatment standards for prostate cancer (PC) overall and mCSPC specifically, hypothesize that TI and OS disparities evident in the treatment of PC may be extended to patients with mCSPC, and describe the data sources and methods used to study those differences. The study found that Black patients were significantly less likely to receive novel treatments for – and experienced a higher risk of death from – mCSPC than white patients.
The authors conclude by noting that “it is concerning that treatment disparities and potentially worse survival outcomes are emerging in mCSPC when life-prolonging treatments are available and established as the standard of care.”
The study, “Emerging racial disparities among Medicare beneficiaries and Veterans with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer,” was published in Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases.