Impact of Insurer on Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma Outcomes, Stage, and Treatment Modalities

While the impact of insurance has been described for thyroid cancer as a whole, we sought to further characterize this relationship for the papillary sub-group (PTC).

Those patients with primary site thyroid tumors from 2007 to 2016 with histology-confirmed PTC were extracted from the SEER database. These parameters yielded 103 219 participants for demographic, extent of disease, and treatment parameter study and 103 025 for outcome studies.

Compared to their counterparts, those with Medicaid were more likely to have stage T3 or greater (<.0001) disease at presentation. Those with Medicare/private insurance were more likely to have No staging at diagnosis (P < .0001). Similarly, those with Medicaid exhibited poorer overall (98.0%, 90.9%, 81.6% vs 98.9%, 95.0%, 90.0%; P < .0001) and cause-specific (99.3%, 98.0%, 95.8% vs 99.7%, 99.1%, 98.4%; P < .0001) survival after 1, 5, and 9 years respectively.

Insurer has a significant impact on the stage at diagnosis of papillary thyroid carcinoma while having limited effect on the treatment modalities offered. Statistically significant overall and cause-specific mortality differences were appreciated but are likely clinical insignificant. Further work to elucidate the social factors likely affecting these patients is warranted.