Racial Disparity in Surgical Therapy for Thymic Malignancies.

Abstract Objective The primary curative treatment for thymic malignancies is surgery. For lung and esophageal cancer, there are substantive disparities in outcomes by race. Much of these disparities are attributed to the decreased utilization of surgery in African-American (AA) patients. Though thymic malignancies are treated by the same group of specialists as lung and esophageal cancer, it is not known if there are racial disparities in the treatment of thymic malignancies. Methods A retrospective cohort analysis was performed using the National Cancer Data Base (NCDB) of patients who were diagnosed with thymoma and thymic carcinoma between 2004 and 2016. Univariate comparisons of demographics were compared using chi-squared and rank-sum tests. Multivariate analysis was performed to determine if race was an independent variable associated with receiving surgical therapy. Pre and post-operative care was compared between races. Results 7,489 patients met inclusion criteria. 4,962 (66%) were Caucasian (CS), 1,311 (18%) were AA, 487 (7%) were Hispanic (HS) and 580 (8%) were Asian/Pacific Islanders (API) and 143 (2%) other races. AA patients with thymic malignancies more often have a median income Conclusion There exists a disparity in surgical therapy for thymic malignancies by race that persists when controlling for other factors.