Racial and social economic factors impact on the cause specific survival of pancreatic cancer: a SEER survey.

BACKGROUND This study used Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) pancreatic cancer data to identify predictive models and potential socio-economic disparities in pancreatic cancer outcome. MATERIALS AND METHODS For risk modeling, Kaplan Meier method was used for cause specific survival analysis. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov's test was used to compare survival curves. The Cox proportional hazard method was applied for multivariate analysis. The area under the ROC curve was computed for predictors of absolute risk of death, optimized to improve efficiency. RESULTS This study included 58,747 patients. The mean follow up time (S.D.) was 7.6 (10.6) months. SEER stage and grade were strongly predictive univariates. Sex, race, and three socio-economic factors (county level family income, rural-urban residence status, and county level education attainment) were independent multivariate predictors. Racial and socio-economic factors were associated with about 2% difference in absolute cause specific survival. CONCLUSIONS This study s found significant effects of socio-economic factors on pancreas cancer outcome. These data may generate hypotheses for trials to eliminate these outcome disparities.