Impact of Immigration Status on Cancer Outcomes in Ontario, Canada.

Background:Prior studies have documented inferior health outcomes in vulnerable populations, including racial minorities and those with disadvantaged socioeconomic status. The impact of immigration on cancer-related outcomes is less clear.Methods:Administrative databases were linked to create a cohort of incident cancer cases (colorectal, lung, prostate, head and neck, breast, and hematologic malignancies) from 2000 to 2012 in Ontario, Canada. Cancer patients who immigrated to Canada (from 1985 onward) were compared with those who were Canadian born (or immigrated before 1985). Patients were followed from diagnosis until death (cancer-specific or all-cause). Cox proportional hazards models were estimated to determine the impact of immigration on mortality after adjusting for explanatory variables. Additional adjusted models studied the relationship of time since immigration and cancer-specific and overall mortality.Results:From 2000 to 2012, 11,485 cancer cases were diagnosed in recent immigrants (0 to 10...