Table 1.
Patient and Oncologist Demographic and Clinical Characteristics*
| Characteristic | Stage III (n = 1,547) |
Stage IV (n = 859) |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | |
| Patient | ||||
| Age at diagnosis, years | ||||
| 65-69 | 244 | 15.8 | 141 | 16.4 |
| 70-74 | 310 | 20.0 | 198 | 23.0 |
| 75-79 | 392 | 25.3 | 201 | 23.4 |
| 80-84 | 348 | 22.5 | 181 | 21.1 |
| ≥ 85 | 253 | 16.4 | 138 | 16.1 |
| Mean | 77.5 | 77.2 | ||
| SD | 6.94 | 7.08 | ||
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 659 | 42.6 | 393 | 45.8 |
| Female | 888 | 57.4 | 466 | 54.2 |
| Race | ||||
| White | 1,300 | 84.0 | 708 | 82.4 |
| Black | 128 | 8.3 | 92 | 10.7 |
| Hispanic | 22 | 1.4 | 11 | 1.3 |
| Other | 97 | 6.3 | 48 | 5.6 |
| Marital status | ||||
| Married | 800 | 51.7 | 406 | 47.3 |
| Single/divorced | 695 | 44.9 | 427 | 49.7 |
| Unknown | 52 | 3.4 | 26 | 3.0 |
| Urban/rural location | ||||
| Urban | 1,376 | 88.9 | 778 | 90.6 |
| SES, quintile | ||||
| Lowest | 175 | 11.3 | 94 | 10.9 |
| Second | 294 | 19.0 | 167 | 19.4 |
| Third | 335 | 21.7 | 198 | 23.1 |
| Fourth | 352 | 22.8 | 182 | 21.2 |
| Highest | 391 | 25.3 | 218 | 25.4 |
| Clinical | ||||
| Grade | ||||
| Well differentiated | 76 | 4.9 | 32 | 3.7 |
| Moderately differentiated | 1,958 | 61.9 | 422 | 49.1 |
| Poorly differentiated | 456 | 29.5 | 218 | 25.4 |
| Undifferentiated | 34 | 2.2 | 13 | 1.5 |
| Unknown | 23 | 1.5 | 174 | 20.3 |
| No. of comorbidities | ||||
| 0 | 853 | 55.1 | 483 | 56.2 |
| 1 | 437 | 28.2 | 250 | 29.1 |
| ≥ 2 | 253 | 16.4 | 126 | 14.7 |
| Hypertension | ||||
| No | 461 | 29.8 | 274 | 31.9 |
| Yes | 1,086 | 70.2 | 585 | 68.1 |
| Oncologist | ||||
| Sex | ||||
| Male | 1,231 | 79.6 | 676 | 78.7 |
| Female | 316 | 20.4 | 183 | 21.3 |
| Degree | ||||
| DO | 55 | 3.6 | 28 | 3.3 |
| MD | 1,492 | 96.4 | 831 | 96.7 |
| US trained | ||||
| No | 575 | 37.2 | 312 | 36.3 |
| Yes | 972 | 62.8 | 547 | 63.7 |
| Date of graduation | ||||
| < 1975 | 291 | 18.8 | 129 | 15.0 |
| ≥ 1975 | 1,256 | 81.2 | 730 | 85.0 |
| Type of practice | ||||
| Nonprivate | 439 | 28.4 | 282 | 32.8 |
| Private | 1,108 | 71.6 | 577 | 67.2 |
| No. of patients in cohort† | ||||
| 1 | 587 | 37.9 | 409 | 47.6 |
| ≥ 2 | 960 | 62.1 | 450 | 52.4 |
| Chemotherapy‡ | ||||
| None | 746 | 48.2 | 424 | 49.4 |
| Oxaliplatin | 432 | 27.9 | 289 | 33.6 |
| Fluorouracil | 755 | 48.8 | 385 | 44.8 |
| Irinotecan | NA | NA | 194 | 22.6 |
| Bevacizumab | 54 | 3.5 | 310 | 36.1 |
Abbreviations: DO, doctor of osteopathy; MD, medical doctor; NA, not applicable; SD, standard deviation; SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results; SES, socioeconomic status.
*
Patients > 65 years of age diagnosed with histologically confirmed colon cancer in the SEER-Medicare database who saw an oncologist between September 1, 2004, and December 31, 2005; for patients with stage IV disease, between January 1, 2005, and December 31, 2005.
†
No. of patients in the cohort treated by their primary oncologists.
‡
Not mutually exclusive.