Patterns and Differences in Lung Cancer Treatment: United States, 2015-2020

Treatment for lung cancer can improve prognosis, but 5-year survival remains low at 26%. An examination of treatment using data with higher population coverage, and among a broader number of treatment modalities and individual characteristics, would provide greater insight into differences in lung cancer treatment.

Among adults diagnosed with lung cancer, how does reported receipt of lung cancer treatment differ by sociodemographic characteristics?

We used 2015-2020 National Program of Cancer Registry data covering 89% of the US population to describe first-course treatment among people aged ≥ 20 years and diagnosed with lung and bronchus cancer. We performed multivariable logistic regression to examine associations between sociodemographic characteristics and treatment received.

Among 1,068,155 people diagnosed with lung cancer, 22% received surgery, 41% received chemotherapy, 40% received radiation, 13% received immunotherapy, and 75% received at least one of the four treatments. People who were aged ≥ 45 years (OR range, 0.08-0.67); were of American Indian or Alaska Native (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.77-0.87), Black (OR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.81-0.84), or Hispanic (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.78-0.82) race/ethnicity; resided in a nonmetropolitan county (OR, 0.98; 0.96-0.99); resided in the bottom 25% (OR, 0.80; 95% CI, 0.78-0.81) and middle 50% (OR, 0.87; 95% CI, 0.86-0.88) of counties by economic status (considers unemployment rate, per capita market income, and poverty rate); and in the West US census region (OR, 0.95; 95% CI, 0.94-0.97) had significantly lower odds of receiving at least 1 of the 4 treatments.

Chemotherapy and radiation were the most common types of first-course treatment reported. Receipt of at least one of the four treatments examined was lower among several groups, including certain racial and ethnic groups and those residing in counties with lower economic status. Future studies might further identify and intervene on factors underlying differences.