Active surveillance: Do low-income patients adhere to the protocol?

53Background: Use of active surveillance (AS) in low-risk prostate cancer (PC) is up from 10% in 2006 to 40% in 2013 according to the CaPSURE registry. The data that provides evidence for the use of AS were among patients adhering to follow-up schedules. There are no data illustrating if patients not on a study follow through with their AS. Based on our experience at a large safety-net hospital with a multi-ethnic, low-income population and a nearby university-based hospital, we hypothesize that AS patients at a safety-net hospital fail to follow-up more frequently than those at a university-based hospital. Methods: We performed a retrospective chart review of patients with non-metastatic prostate cancer who initiated AS at Los Angeles County Hospital (LAC) and Norris Cancer Center (NCC) between 1/1/2008-1/1/2015. Competing-risks regression analyses were used to examine the difference in the rates of AS patients being lost to follow-up (LTFU) between the two institutions, as well as the association betwee...