Race, brachytherapy, and survival
“Consistent with prior data, we found that black patients had a significant decrease in overall survival, compared to non-black women,” Dr. Alimena said. “Furthermore, we found survival differences by race were mediated by brachytherapy use.”
The median overall survival was 52.5 months among black patients and 65.3 months among non-black patients (P less than .001).
Among patients who did not receive brachytherapy, black patients had a significantly higher risk of death than non-black patients (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.11; P = .013).
However, among patients who did receive brachytherapy, black and non-black patients had a similar risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio = 1.01; P = .83). The interaction term comparing these survival curves was statistically significant (P = .043).
“This is the first study, to our knowledge, to show such an interaction between race and survival being mediated by one particular treatment modality,” Dr. Alimena said.
“While not directly tested in this study, the most likely hypothesis why black patients may be less likely to receive brachytherapy is having poor access to brachytherapy services. This suggests that reducing racial disparities in survival is possible by increasing access to brachytherapy for black patients.”
Dr. Alimena had no financial disclosures.
SOURCE: Alimena S et al. SGO 2019. Abstract 11.