Sociodemographic Disparities in Access to Chemotherapy for Bladder Cancer

We sought to evaluate sociodemographic disparities in access to neoadjuvant (NAC) and adjuvant (AC) chemotherapy in the United States and their effect on survival.

The National Cancer Database was used to identify all patients from 2004 to 2016 eligible for NAC and AC. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression was performed to identify sociodemographic predictors associated with receipt of NAC and AC. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard models were used for survival analysis.

A total of 17,121 patients were eligible for NAC, and 18,962 for AC. Older (OR 0.94, P < .001), Medicare (OR 0.88, P = .047), Medicaid (OR 0.66, P = .001), uninsured (OR 0.47, P < .001), rural (OR 0.70, P = .042), and community hospital patients (OR 0.72, P < .001) were less likely to receive NAC. Older, (OR 0.95, P < .001), female (OR 0.79, P < .001), Medicaid (OR 0.71, P = .003), uninsured (OR 0.60, P = .001), and lower income patients (OR 0.86, P = .017) were less likely to receive AC. In NAC-eligible patients, older (HR 1.02, P < .001), Medicare (HR 1.11, P = .024), Medicaid (HR 1.25, P = .012), and community hospital patients (HR 1.09, P = .021) were at an increased risk of death. In AC-eligible patients, older (HR 1.01, P < .001), Black (HR 1.15, P = .011), Medicaid (HR 1.14, P = .042), lower income (HR 1.07, P = .038) and community hospital patients (HR 1.07, P = .021) were at an increased risk of death.

Significant sociodemographic disparities currently exist in the United States in access to neoadjuvant and adjuvant chemotherapy for bladder cancer. Uninsured and Medicaid insurance status are the strongest predictors of not receiving chemotherapy. Efforts must be made to deliver this critical standard-of-care treatment to these patients.