Report Summarizes Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Study Findings from University of Chicago (Health Insurance Coverage and Survival Outcomes among Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients: A SEER Retrospective Analysis): Oncology – Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

2022 MAY 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- New study results on nasopharyngeal carcinoma have been published. According to news reporting originating from Chicago, Illinois, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Insurance coverage plays a critical role in head and neck cancer care. This retrospective study examines how insurance coverage affects nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) survival in the United States using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program database.”

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from University of Chicago: “Design, Setting, and Participants A total of 2,278 patients aged 20 to 64 years according to the International Classification of Diseases for Oncology (ICD-O) codes C11.0-C11.9 and ICD-O histology codes 8070-8078 and 8080-8083 between 2007 and 2016 were included and grouped into privately insured, Medicaid, and uninsured groups. Log-rank test and multivariable Cox’s proportional hazard model were performed. Main Outcome Measures Tumor stage, age, sex, race, marital status, disease stage, year of diagnosis, median household county income, and disease-specific survival outcomes including cause of death were analyzed. Across all tumor stages, privately insured patients had a 59.0% lower mortality risk than uninsured patients (hazard ratio [HR]: 0.410, 95% confidence interval [CI]: [0.320, 0.526], p < 0.01). Medicaid patients were also estimated to have 19.0% lower mortality than uninsured patients (HR: 0.810, 95% CI: [0.626, 1.048], p = 0.108). Privately insured patients with regional and distant NPC had significantly better survival outcomes compared with uninsured individuals. Localized tumors did not show any association between survival and type of insurance coverage.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Privately insured individuals had significantly better survival outcomes than uninsured or Medicaid patients, a trend that was preserved after accounting for tumor grade, demographic and clinicopathologic factors. These results underscore the difference in survival outcomes when comparing privately insured to Medicaid/uninsured populations and warrant further investigation in efforts for health care reform.”

For more information on this research see: Health Insurance Coverage and Survival Outcomes among Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Patients: A SEER Retrospective Analysis. Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base, 2022. The publisher for Journal of Neurological Surgery Part B: Skull Base is Georg Thieme Verlag KG.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1747962.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ashley Diaz, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Additional authors for this research include Daniel Bujnowski, Haobin Chen, Keaton Pendergrast, Peleg Horowitz, Paramita Das, Christopher Roxbury.

ORCID is an identifier for authors and includes bibliographic information. The following is ORCID information for the authors of this research: Ashley Diaz (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1475-7448), Daniel Bujnowski (http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6934-1688), Keaton Pendergrast (http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5390-0868).

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