Disparities in cancer mortality outcomes among adult immigrants in the United States.

Authors

Patricia Mae Santos

Patricia Mae Garcia Santos

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Patricia Mae Garcia Santos , Lillian A. Boe , Justin Michael Barnes , Lilia Cervantes , Robin Yabroff , Fumiko Chino

Organizations

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO, Department of Surveillance and Health Equity Science, American Cancer Society, Atlanta, GA, Department of Radiation Oncology, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY

Research Funding

The Commonwealth Fund
Conquer Cancer, The ASCO Foundation

Background: The “immigrant health paradox” posits that immigrants are generally healthier than US natives of similar demographic and socioeconomic background. However, immigrant noncitizens with cancer face unique barriers to care, including limited access to routine screening and continuous healthcare coverage, which may portend worse outcomes. Methods: The 2011-2018 National Health Interview Survey Linked Mortality Files were used to identify all adult (age ≥18 years) US natives, foreign-born citizens, and noncitizens with a cancer history. Differences by group were assessed using the chi-squared test with Rao & Scott’s second-order correction. Cox-proportional hazards models tested associations between nativity/citizenship status and cancer-specific (CSM) and all-cause mortality (ACM), adjusted by age, gender, and survey year. Sequential models separately tested the added effects of individual patient-level covariates selected a priori—including race/ethnicity, smoking status, region, educational attainment, employment, insurance status, and having a usual source of care. Results: A total of 23,603,743 US natives, 1,647,188 foreign-born citizens and 477,861 noncitizens met criteria for inclusion. Compared to US natives, immigrants had significantly greater distribution of gastroesophageal (2.3%, noncitizens vs 2.3%, foreign-born citizens vs 1.0%, US natives, p<0.001), head & neck (8.4% vs 6.2% vs 4.4%, p=0.003), and lung cancers (3.1% vs 4.2% vs 2.8%, p=0.03). Of the1,302,0771 US natives, 105,258 foreign-born citizens, and 21,937 noncitizens who died during the study period, cancer was the primary cause of death for 52% of noncitizens and 62% of foreign-born citizens (vs 44%, p<0.001). Lung cancer was the most common diagnosis in this group, accounting for 40% of cancer deaths among non-citizens (vs 19% vs 13%; p=0.03). Relative to US natives, foreign-born citizens had a significantly lower risk of all-cause (adjusted HR [95%CI], 0.67 [0.54-0.83]) but not cancer-specific mortality (0.94 [0.71-1.23]); no differences in mortality risk among noncitizens were observed. On subset analysis limited to adults with lung cancer, noncitizens had over twice the hazard of cancer death (2.72 [1.22-6.09]) as well as death from any cause (2.14 [1.01-4.55]). While the association with ACM was no longer significant in sequential models, the association remained significant for CSM. Importantly, insurance status attenuated but did not eliminate the risk of lung cancer death for noncitizens (2.63 [1.16-5.96]). Conclusions: Although immigrant noncitizens did not have a significantly greater risk of cancer death overall, those with lung cancer were more than twice as likely to die from their disease, even after adjustment for patient-level variables, including insurance status and having a usual source of care. Future research is warranted to identify root causes and potential points for intervention.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2024 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B

Track

Health Care Access, Equity, and Disparities,Technology and Innovation in Quality of Care,Survivorship

Sub Track

Cancer Outcome Disparities

Citation

JCO Oncol Pract 20, 2024 (suppl 10; abstr 134)

DOI

10.1200/OP.2024.20.10_suppl.134

Abstract #

134

Poster Bd #

D7

Abstract Disclosures