Reducing disparities in cancer care is a major focus of the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting taking place June 3-7 at Chicago’s McCormick Place. Unlike the past two meetings, which were held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s meeting will use a hybrid model of in-person and virtual attendance.
“We have over 36,000 registrants, of which 80% are currently registered as in-person and 20% are virtual. This [number] is fairly consistent with pre-COVID registration,” said ASCO chief medical officer Julie Gralow, MD, during a virtual news conference highlighting four studies.
More than 2,800 abstracts will be presented at the ASCO meeting, while an additional 2,400 will be published online. Most of the abstracts were released today on the ASCO website, although the late-breakers and plenary session studies will be released on the day they are presented at the meeting.
Overall Survival Among Children with Neuroblastoma
One of the studies highlighted in the news conference explored the association of race, ethnicity, and poverty on five-year overall survival (OS) among 696 children with high-risk neuroblastoma enrolled in Children’s Oncology Group (COG) clinical trials (Abstract 10005). Lead author Puja J. Umaretiya, MD, said clinical care in trials was standardized, so it would be very similar.
Five-year OS rate varied by race and ethnicity, at 47% for Hispanic children, 50% for other non-Hispanic children, 61% for white children, and 63% for Black children, the researchers reported. When analyzed by socioeconomic factors, OS was 54% for children living in neighborhood level poverty compared with 62% for kids in other areas.
“Our next steps will look at the interaction of race, ethnicity, and poverty, acknowledging the intersectionality of these three factors in the United States due to structural racism,” said Dr. Umaretiya, who is a clinical fellow in pediatric hematology/oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Boston Children's Hospital.
Gap in Overall Survival Tied to Social Services Spending
Another study found that states can improve five-year OS in Black adult cancer patients by increasing investments in social services spending (Abstract 6509). Researchers analyzed records of nearly 3 million adults ages 18 and older with newly diagnosed with cancer from 2007 to 2016 in the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database. They also examined annual state spending on Medicaid and other social services for socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals from the U.S. Census Bureau.
They found that increases in spending were associated with a smaller gap in survival rates between Black and white patients across cancer types. Specifically, the five-year survival gap narrowed by 4.55% for every 10% increase in spending.
“Future work is needed to determine the specific most influential public welfare expenditures, and if we can do this, we can more rigorously evaluate state-level policies and their association with cancer outcomes,” said lead author Justin Michael Barnes, MD, MS, who is in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
ASCO has increased its efforts in health equity in a number of areas over the past three years, including with its presidential themes for the Annual Meeting. This year’s theme is, “Advancing Equitable Cancer Care Through Innovation.”
“We hope that coming out of this epidemic that there will be an additional big push for innovation that will then also facilitate us having a more equitable arrangement for cancer care worldwide,” said ASCO president Everett Vokes, MD, who is also physician-in-chief at the University of Chicago Medicine and Biological Sciences.
Dr. Gralow reported relationships with many companies, including Genentech, AstraZeneca, and Hexal. Dr. Vokes reported relationships with several companies, including AstraZeneca, Genentech, and Lilly. Dr. Umaretiya and Dr. Barnes reported no relevant relationships.