Disparities in Lung Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Purpose of review: Despite an overall reduction in lung cancer incidence and mortality rates worldwide, Blacks still have higher mortality rates compared to Whites. There are many factors that contribute to this difference. This review seeks to highlight racial disparities in treatment and the possible reasons for these disparities.

Recent findings: Factors attributing to racial disparities in lung cancer treatment include social determinants of health, differences in the administration of guideline-concordant therapy as well as molecular testing that is essential for most NSCLC patients. One way to circumvent disparities in lung cancer survivorship is to ensure equal representation of race in research at all levels that will provide insight on interventions that will address social determinants of health, differences in treatment patterns, molecular testing, and clinical trial involvement.

Keywords: Black-White disparity; Chemotherapy; Clinical trials; Guideline-concordant treatment; Molecular biomarker testing utilization; Next-generation sequencing; Non-small cell lung cancer; Racial disparities; Radiation and surgery; Social determinants of health.

Fig. 1

Age-adjusted US death rates for lung cancer among males (A) and females (B) by race (1999–2017) [9], and 5-year relative survival among males (C) and females (D) by race (1999–2016) [13]