Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the association of insurance status with disease stage at presentation, treatment, and survival among the top 10 most deadly cancers using the SEER database. Patients and Methods A total of 473,722 patients age 18 to 64 years who were diagnosed with one of the 10 most deadly cancers in the SEER database from 2007 to 2010 were analyzed. A Cox proportional hazards model was used for multivariable analyses to assess the effect of patient and tumor characteristics on cause-specific death. Results Overall, patients with non-Medicaid insurance were less likely to present with distant disease (16.9%) than those with Medicaid coverage (29.1%) or without insurance coverage (34.7%; P < .001). Patients with non-Medicaid insurance were more likely to receive cancer-directed surgery and/or radiation therapy (79.6%) compared with those with Medicaid coverage (67.9%) or without insurance coverage (62.1%; P < .001). In a Cox regression that adjusted for age, race, sex, marital status, residence, percent of county below federal poverty level, site, stage, and receipt of cancer-directed surgery and/or radiation therapy, patients were more likely to die as a result of their disease if they had Medicaid coverage (hazard ratio [HR], 1.44; 95% CI, 1.41 to 1.47; P < .001) or no insurance (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 1.42 to 1.51; P < .001) compared with non-Medicaid insurance. Conclusion Among patients with the 10 most deadly cancers, those with Medicaid coverage or without insurance were more likely to present with advanced disease, were less likely to receive cancer-directed surgery and/or radiation therapy, and experienced worse survival.

Background To retrospectively evaluate outcomes in patients with cutaneous angiosarcoma of the face/scalp treated curatively with surgery, radiation therapy (RT), or a combination of surgery and RT. Methods 70 patients with non-metastatic angiosarcoma underwent surgery, RT, or combined-modality therapy. Of these, 20 (29%) were treated with surgery alone, 27 (39%) with RT alone, and 23 (33%) with combined-modality therapy. 44 patients received chemotherapy, either neo-adjuvantly or adjuvantly or both. Results Median follow-up was 2.1 years. The overall survival (OS) rate was 43% at 5 years, and disease specific survival was 46% at 5 years. Tumor size > 5 cm and satellitosis were prognostic for inferior OS and DSS. Combined-modality therapy (vs. surgery alone or RT alone) was associated with improved OS, DSS, and local control (LC). Conclusion Primary local therapy with combined-modality therapy was associated with improved LC, OS, and DSS for patients with angiosarcoma of the face/scalp.

Increased travel burden was associated with a decreased likelihood of receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, regardless of insurance status. Patients with nonprivate insurance who resided in low-density oncologist areas were less likely to receive adjuvant chemotherapy. If these findings are validated prospectively, interventions to decrease geographic barriers may improve the timeliness and quality of colon cancer treatment.

A B S T R A C T Purpose:Our goal was to evaluate use and associated costs of radiation therapy (RT) in the last month of life among those dying of cancer. Methods:We used the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) -Medicare linked databases to analyze claims data for 202,299 patients dying as a result of lung, breast, prostate, colorectal, and pancreas cancers from 2000 to 2007. Logistic regression modeling was used to conduct adjusted analyses of potential impacts of demographic, health services, and treatment-related variables on receipt of RT and treatment with greater than 10 days of RT. Costs were calculated in 2009 dollars. Results:Among the 15,287 patients (7.6%) who received RT in the last month of life, its use was associated with nonclinical factors such as race, gender, income, and hospice care. Of these patients, 2,721 (17.8%) received more than 10 days of treatment. Nonclinical factors that were associated with greater likelihood of receiving more than 10 days of RT in the last 30 days of life included: non-Hispanic white race, no receipt of hospice care, and treatment in a freestanding, versus a hospital-associated facility. Hospice care was associated with 32% decrease in total costs of care in the last month of life among those receiving RT. Conclusion:Although utilization of RT overall was low, almost one in five of patients who received RT in their final 30 days of life spent more than 10 of those days receiving treatment. More research is needed into physician decision making regarding use of RT for patients with end-stage cancer.

Background Radiation-associated angiosarcoma (RAAS) is a devastating disease occasionally observed in breast cancer patients treated with radiation. Due to its rarity, our knowledge—of disease risk factors, epidemiology, treatment, and outcome—is extremely limited. Therefore, we sought to identify clinicopathologic factors associated with local and distant recurrence, and disease-specific survival (DSS). Methods Radiation-associated angiosarcoma was defined as pathologically confirmed breast or chest wall angiosarcoma arising within a previously irradiated field. A comprehensive search of our institutional tumor registry (1/1/93 through 2/28/11) was used to identify patients (n=95 females); patient, original tumor, RAAS treatment, and outcome variables were retrospectively retrieved and assembled into a database. Results The median follow-up for all RAAS patients was 10.3 years (range, 2.4 – 31.8 years). The latency period following radiation exposure ranged from 1.4 to 26 years (median = 7 years). One- and five-year DSS rates were 93.5% and 62.6%, respectively. Reduced risk of local recurrence was observed in patients who received chemotherapy (P = 0.0003). In multivariable analysis, size was found to be an independent predictor of adverse outcome (P = 0.015). Discussion Our study demonstrates that RAAS exhibits high recurrence rates. It also highlights the need for well-designed multicenter clinical trials to inform the true utility of chemotherapy in this disease.

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BACKGROUND: Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) is a technologically advanced, and more expensive, method of delivering radiation therapy with a goal of minimizing toxicity. It has been widely adopted for head and neck cancers; however, its comparative impact on cancer control and survival remains unknown. The goal of this analysis was to compare the cause-specific survival (CSS) for patients with head and neck cancers treated with IMRT versus non-IMRT from 1999 to 2007. METHODS: CSS was determined using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database and analyzed regarding treatment details, including the use of IMRT versus non-IMRT, using claims data. Hazard ratios (HRs) were estimated by the frailty model with a propensity score matching cohort and instrumental variable analysis. RESULTS: A total of 3172 patients were identified. With a median follow-up of 40 months, patients treated with IMRT had a statistically significant improvement in CSS compared with those treated with non-IMRT (84.1% versus 66.0%; P <.001). When each anatomic subsite was analyzed separately, all respective subgroups of patients treated with IMRT had better CSS than those treated with non-IMRT. In multivariable survival analyses, patients treated with IMRT were associated with better CSS (HR 5 0.72, 95% confidence interval 5 0.59 to 0.90 for propensity score matching; HR 5 0.60, 95% confidence interval 5 0.41 to 0.88 for instrumental variable analysis). CONCLUSIONS: Patients with head and neck cancers who were treated with IMRT experienced significant improvements in CSS compared with patients treated with non-IMRT techniques. This suggests there may be benefits to IMRT in cancer outcomes, in addition to toxicity reduction, for this patient population. Cancer 2014;120:702-10.

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