Investigators at Brown University Report Findings in Bone Cancer (Disparities In Primary Spinal Osseous Malignant Bone Tumor Survival By Medicaid Status: a National Population-based Risk Analysis): Oncology – Bone Cancer

2024 MAR 25 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- Researchers detail new data in Oncology - Bone Cancer. According to news reporting out of Providence, Rhode Island, by NewsRx editors, research stated, “The impact of Medicaid status on survival outcomes of patients with spinal primary malignant bone tumors (sPMBT) has not been investigated. Using the SEER-Medicaid database, adults diagnosed between 2006 and 2013 with sPMBT including chordoma, osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, or malignant giant cell tumor (GCT) were studied.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Brown University, “Five -year survival analysis was performed using the Kaplan -Meier method. Adjusted survival analysis was performed using Cox proportional-hazards regression controlling for age, sex, marital status, cancer stage, poverty level, vertebral versus sacral location, geography, rurality, tumor diameter, tumor grade, tumor histology, and therapy. A total of 572 patients with sPMBT (Medicaid: 59, non-Medicaid: 513) were identified. Medicaid patients were more likely to be younger (P < 0.001), Black (P < 0.001), live in high poverty neighborhoods (P = 0.006), have distant metastases at diagnosis (P < 0.001), and less likely to receive surgery (P = 0.006). The 5 -year survival rate was 65.7% (chondrosarcoma: 70.0%, chordoma: 91.5%, Ewing sarcoma: 44.6%, GCT: 90.0%, osteosarcoma: 34.2%). Medicaid patients had significantly worse 5 -year survival than non-Medicaid patients (52.0% vs. 67.2%, P = 0.02). Minority individuals on Medicaid were associated with an increased risk of cancer-specific mortality compared with White non-Medicaid patients (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 2.51, [95% CI 1.18-5.35], P = 0.017). Among Medicaid patients, those who received surgery had significantly better survival than those who did not (64.5% vs. 30.6%, P = 0.001). For all patients, not receiving surgery (aHR = 1.90 [1.23-2.95], P = 0.004) and tumor diameter >50 mm (aHR=1.89 [1.10-3.25], P = 0.023) were associated with an increased risk of mortality. - Medicaid patients may be less likely to receive surgery and suffer from poorer survival.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “These disparities may be especially prominent among minorities.”

This research has been peer-reviewed.

For more information on this research see: Disparities In Primary Spinal Osseous Malignant Bone Tumor Survival By Medicaid Status: a National Population-based Risk Analysis. World Neurosurgery, 2024;181. World Neurosurgery can be contacted at: Elsevier Science Inc, Ste 800, 230 Park Ave, New York, NY 10169, USA. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; World Neurosurgery - http://www.journals.elsevier.com/world-neurosurgery/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ziya L. Gokaslan, Brown University, Brown University School of Medicine, Dept. of Neurosurgery, Providence, RI 02912, United States. Additional authors for this research include Arjun Ganga, Eric J. Kim, Owen P. Leary, Rahul A. Sastry, Jared S. Fridley, Ki-Eun Chang, Tianyi Niu, Patricia Zadnik Sullivan, James Y. Lee and Ponnandai S. Somasundar.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2023.09.103. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

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