Cancer Management and Research (Sep 2023)

Outcomes of Antineoplastic Immunotherapy at a Large Healthcare Organization: Impact of Provider, Race and Socioeconomic Status

  • Mirsky MM,
  • Mitchell C,
  • Hong A,
  • Cao S,
  • Fu P,
  • Margevicius S,
  • Wu S,
  • Dowlati A,
  • Nelson A,
  • Selfridge JE,
  • Ramaiya N,
  • Hoimes C,
  • Alahmadi A,
  • Bruno DS

Journal volume & issue
Vol. Volume 15
pp. 913 – 927

Abstract

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Matthew M Mirsky,1 Carley Mitchell,1 Augustine Hong,1 Shufen Cao,2 Pingfu Fu,2 Seunghee Margevicius,2 Sulin Wu,1 Afshin Dowlati,1 Ariel Nelson,1 J Eva Selfridge,1 Nikhil Ramaiya,1 Christopher Hoimes,1 Asrar Alahmadi,1,* Debora S Bruno1,* 1University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH, USA*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Debora S Bruno, University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, 11100 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA, Tel +1 216 844-3951, Email [email protected]: Disparities in cancer care delivery remain a pressing health-care crisis within the United States (US). The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and their management may be a disparity generator that impacts survival. This retrospective study assessed disparities in a cohort of patients with a variety of solid tumors treated with ICIs within a single health-care organization focusing on the impact of race, socioeconomic status (SES) and site of care delivery on survival and the development of severe immune-related adverse events (irAEs).Patients and Methods: Manual chart review was performed on all patients with solid tumors treated with ICIs within a health-care organization from 2012 to 2018. Care delivery was dichotomized as DOP (disease-oriented provider at academic center) and COP (community oncology provider). Primary and secondary outcomes were overall survival (OS) and rates of grade 3– 4 irAEs, respectively. Relationships with covariates of interest, including race, socioeconomic status and type of care delivery, were assessed among both outcomes.Results: A total of 1070 eligible patients were identified. Of those, 11.4% were of Black race, 59.7% had either non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or melanoma and 82.8% had stage IV disease. Patients of Black race and lower SES were more likely to be treated by DOPs (p< 0.0001). A superior OS was associated with care delivered by DOPs when compared to COPs (HR 0.68; 95% CI 0.56– 0.84; p=0.0002), which was durable after accounting for race, SES, histopathologic diagnosis and disease stage. Melanoma patients experienced higher rates of severe irAEs (HR 2.37; 95% CI 1.42– 3.97; p=0.001). Race, SES and site of care delivery were not related to rates of severe irAEs.Conclusion: In a large health-care organization, patients treated with checkpoint inhibitors by DOPs benefited from a significant OS advantage that was durable after controlling for racial and socioeconomic factors, providing evidence that disease-oriented care has the potential to mitigate racial and socioeconomic disparities.Keywords: disparities, healthcare delivery, immunotherapy outcomes

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