Table 1.
Characteristics of African-American and Caucasian Medicare Beneficiaries With an Incident Diagnosis of Breast Cancer as Recorded in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program From 1998 to 2002 (n=201,305)
| NCI Cancer Center Attendance: No. of Patients (%)a |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Caucasians | African Americans | |||
| Variable | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Total | 12,690 (6.9) | 170,607 (93.1) | 1993 (11.1) | 16,015 (88.9) |
| Woman | 5631 (44.4) | 82,768 (48.5) | 867 (43.5) | 6944 (43.4) |
| Predominant primary careb | 5136 (40.5) | 79,391 (46.5) | 988 (49.6) | 8930 (55.8) |
| Rurality | ||||
| Urban/suburban | 10,339 (81.4) | 132,361 (77.6) | 1968 (98.8) | 14,117 (88.2) |
| Large town/rural | 2351 (18.6) | 38,246 (22.4) | 25 (1.2) | 1898 (11.8) |
| Cancer Site | ||||
| Breast | 2933 (23.1) | 41,662 (24.4) | 465 (23.3) | 3126 (19.5) |
| Lung | 3178 (25) | 39,644 (23.2) | 383 (19.2) | 3632 (22.7) |
| Colon/rectum | 2407 (19) | 40,662 (23.8) | 336 (16.9) | 3673 (22.9) |
| Prostate | 4172 (32.9) | 48,639 (32.9) | 809 (40.6) | 5584 (34.9) |
| Charlson Score | ||||
| 0 | 8338 (65.7) | 104,210 (61.1) | 1171 (58.8) | 8436 (52.7) |
| 1–2 | 3041 (24) | 43,371 (25.4) | 528 (26.5) | 4610 (28.8) |
| 3–4 | 993 (7.8) | 16,604 (9.7) | 216 (10.8) | 2005 (12.5) |
| ≥5 | 318 (2.5) | 6422 (3.8) | 78 (3.9) | 964 (6) |
| Cancer-directed surgery | 7660 (60.4) | 99,213 (58.2) | 1072 (53.8) | 7985 (49.9) |
| Stage | ||||
| I | 2817 (22.2) | 42,024 (24.6) | 419 (21) | 2852 (17.8) |
| II | 1697 (15.7) | 27,107 (15.9) | 224 (11.2) | 2390 (14.9) |
| III | 1814 (14.3) | 23,189 (13.6) | 249 (12.5) | 2283 (14.3) |
| IV | 1943 (15.3) | 22,189 (13) | 286 (14.3) | 2608 (16.3) |
| Unknown | 4419 (34.8) | 56,158 (32.9) | 815 (40.9) | 5882 (36.7) |
| Age at diagnosis: Median [interquartile range], y | 73 [69–77] | 75 [70–80] | 73 [69–77] | 74 [69–79] |
| Travel time to nearest: Median [interquartile range], min | ||||
| NCI cancer center | 28 [16–64] | 55 [24–137] | 10 [7–15] | 29 [15–152] |
| Academic-based care | 19 [11–50] | 25 [13–70] | 7 [5–8] | 10 [6–24] |
| Income of zip code in $1000: Median [interquartile range] | 48.6 [36.1–60.4] | 46.4 [33.5–59.1] | 31.8 [24.6–41.0] | 32.2 [25.1–44.3] |
| Physician supply by hospital referral region: Median [interquartile range] | ||||
| Primary care, per 1000 | 1.3 [1.0–1.9] | 1.2 [0.9–1.6] | 1.0 [0.8–2.3] | 1.2 [0.8–1.5] |
| Oncologists, per 100,000 | 3.4 [2.3–4.3] | 2.5 [2.0–3.8] | 3.8 [3.8–3.8] | 3.7 [2.4–3.8] |
NCI indicates National Cancer Institute.
a
NCI cancer Center attendance was defined as having two or more claim-days in the first 12 months following diagnosis.
b
Predominant primary care was defined as having the same number or equal numbers of primary care visits and specialist visits in the 6 months before diagnosis.