Table 2.
Patient and tumor characteristics across hospital quintiles of PET utilization for lung and esophageal cancers*
| Characteristics | Quintile | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (low) | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 (high) | |
| Lung | |||||
| Patients, No. | 7842 | 21 922 | 20 827 | 24 306 | 22 255 |
| Age (median), y | 76 | 76 | 76 | 76 | 76 |
| Race, No. (%) | |||||
| White | 6361 (81.1) | 19 015 (86.7) | 18 253 (87.6) | 21 048 (86.6) | 19 620 (88.2) |
| Black | 884 (11.3) | 1645 (7.5) | 1790 (8.6) | 1925 (7.9) | 1515 (6.8) |
| Other | 597 (7.6) | 1262 (5.8) | 784 (3.8) | 1333 (5.5) | 1120 (5.0) |
| AJCC stage, No. (%) | |||||
| I | 1368 (17.4) | 4410 (20.1) | 4279 (20.5) | 4983 (20.5) | 4779 (21.5) |
| II | 299 (3.8) | 893 (4.1) | 876 (4.2) | 1,074 (4.4) | 1019 (4.6) |
| III | 1770 (22.6) | 5349 (24.4) | 4820 (23.1) | 5622 (23.1) | 5375 (24.2) |
| IV | 3326 (42.4) | 8916 (40.6) | 8315 (39.9) | 9677 (39.8) | 8527 (38.3) |
| Esophageal | |||||
| Patients, No. | 771 | 940 | 915 | 953 | 867 |
| Age (median), y | 76 | 77 | 75 | 76 | 74 |
| Race, No. (%) | |||||
| White | 634 (82.2) | 842 (89.6) | 793 (86.7) | 829 (87.0) | 786 (90.7) |
| Black | 77 (10.0) | 68 (7.2) | 93 (10.2) | 80 (8.4) | 42 (4.8) |
| Other | 60 (7.8) | 30 (3.2) | 29 (3.2) | 44 (4.6) | 39 (4.5) |
| AJCC stage, No. (%) | |||||
| I | 135 (17.5) | 191 (20.3) | 192 (21.0) | 162 (17.0) | 177 (20.4) |
| II | 141 (18.3) | 175 (18.6) | 153 (16.7) | 183 (19.2) | 168 (19.4) |
| III | 128 (16.6) | 147 (15.6) | 163 (17.8) | 170 (17.8) | 143 (16.5) |
| IV | 194 (25.2) | 278 (29.6) | 225 (24.6) | 249 (26.1) | 221 (25.5) |
* AJCC = American Joint Committee on Cancer; PET = positron emission tomography.