Table 1.

Characteristics of Elderly Advanced Non-Squamous NSCLC Patients in the Three Treatment Groups

Characteristics	BCP No. (%)	CP 2006–7		CP 2002–5
		No. (%)	P value a	No. (%)	P value a
TOTAL	318	1,182 b		2,664 b
Age at diagnosis, years
65–69	127 (39.9)	396 (33.5)		911 (34.2)
70–74	84 (26.4)	356 (30.1)	.07	861 (32.3)	.08
75–79	78 (24.5)	278 (23.5)		612 (23.0)
80+	29 (9.1)	152 (12.9)		280 (10.5)
Gender
Female	156 (49.1)	529 (44.8)	.18	1,255 (47.1)	.51
Male	162 (50.9)	653 (55.2)		1,409 (52.9)
Race/ethnicity
Non-Hispanic White	279 (87.7)	981 (83.0)		2,267 (85.1)
Non-Hispanic Black	15 (4.7)	98 (8.3)	.07	167 (6.3)	.46
Other	24 (7.5)	103 (8.7)		230 (8.6)
Marital status
Not married	117 (36.8)	467 (39.5)	.40	993 (37.3)	.90
Married	201 (63.2)	715 (60.5)		1,671 (62.7)
Median income (census tract quintile) c
1 (lowest)	60 (18.9)	240 (20.3)		536 (20.1)
2	58 (18.2)	242 (20.5)		543 (20.4)
3	63 (19.8)	237 (20.1)	.20	533 (20.0)	.23
4	58 (18.2)	242 (20.5)		533 (20.0)
5 (highest)	79 (24.8)	221 (18.7)		519 (19.5)
College educated (census tract quintile) d
1 (lowest)	66 (20.8)	234 (19.8)		533 (20.0)
2	58 (18.2)	244 (20.6)		537 (20.2)
3	62 (19.5)	238 (20.1)	.38	533 (20.0)	.76
4	57 (17.9)	241 (20.4)		537 (20.2)
5 (highest)	75 (23.6)	225 (19.0)		524 (19.7)
SEER region
Northeast	65 (20.4)	295 (25.0)		657 (24.7)
South	69 (21.7)	244 (20.6)	.40	548 (20.6)	.42
Midwest	51 (16.0)	173 (14.6)		409 (15.4)
West	133 (41.8)	470 (39.8)		1,050 (39.4)
Urban residency e
No	35 (11.0)	92 (7.8)	.07	211 (7.9)	.07
Yes	283 (89.0)	1,090 (92.2)		2,453 (92.1)
Modified Charlson comorbidity score f
0	210 (66.0)	665 (56.3)		1,661 (62.3)
1	88 (27.7)	324 (27.4)	<.001	657 (24.7)	<.01
2+	20 (6.3)	193 (16.3)		346 (13.0)
Level of differentiation (Tumor grading)
Well/moderately	50 (15.7)	128 (10.8)		277 (10.4)
Poorly/no	85 (26.7)	345 (29.2)	.06	820 (30.8)	.01
Unknown	183 (57.5)	709 (60.0)		1,567 (58.8)
AJCC stage
IIIB	56 (17.6)	344 (29.1)	<.001	816 (30.6)	<.001
IV	262 (82.4)	838 (70.9)		1,848 (69.4)

Abbreviations: NSCLC, non-small-cell lung cancer; BCP, bevacizumab-carboplatin-paclitaxel; CP 2006–7, carboplatin-paclitaxel (diagnoses 2006–7 when bevacizumab was FDA approved for NSCLC); CP 2002–5, carboplatin-paclitaxel (diagnoses 2002–5 when bevacizumab was not available (2002–3) or not approved for NSCLC treatment); SEER, Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results; AJCC, American Joint Committee on Cancer. Percentages for some categories do not total 100% because of rounding.

^aThe first P value is for the comparison of BCP to CP 2006–7 and the second for the comparison of BCP to CP 2002–5.

^b2 patients with a missing characteristic variable were excluded from each of the two control groups.

^cMedian income refers to median household or per capita income by 2000 census tract or zip code.

^dCollege educated refers to the percentage of persons older than age 25 years with some college education by 2000 census tract.

^eUrban residency refers to counties of at least 20,000 residents, as opposed to rural residency.

^fMordified Charlson comorbidity score was constructed by applying the Deyo adaptation¹⁸ of the Charlson comorbidity index,¹⁹ modified to exclude cancer diagnoses, to Medicare inpatient, outpatient, and physician claims during the 12-month period extending from 13 months to 1 month before NSCLC diagnosis using lung cancer-specific weights as described by Klabunde et al.^20,21