Radiation therapy for lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand

The purpose of this study was to use highly complete data from publicly and privately funded radiation therapy centers to describe national-level receipt of radiation therapy for those diagnosed with lung cancer in Aotearoa New Zealand.

We linked national health datasets to New Zealand Cancer Registry lung cancer registrations from the period 2012-2019 (n = 18,081) to describe the radiation therapy delivery overall and in terms of treatment intent patterns, for all lung cancer registrations and by tumor type. We use marginal standardization and regression modeling to describe the extent to which these treatment factors vary by patient characteristic and population sub-group, independent of other factors.

Around 40% of people with lung cancer had radiation therapy, with similar proportions among those with small cell lung cancer (SCLC, 53%) and non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC, 46%). Patterns of radiation therapy among those with SCLC were different from NSCLC and from lung cancer overall, in terms of stage, ethnicity, and deprivation. We observed lower rates of radiation therapy among those with the greatest socioeconomic deprivation among those with SCLC. Across all tumor types, and for lung cancer overall, those with higher comorbidity had lower rates of radiation therapy.

We observed variation in the receipt of radiation therapy for people diagnosed with lung cancer in 2012-2019 in Aotearoa New Zealand in terms of tumor type, stage, ethnicity, deprivation, and comorbidity but not rurality. Differences for Asian and Pacific people and the lack of variation by rurality are potential topics for further research.