CAREFREE, A.Z. - More than a million cancer survivors living in the United States are foregoing what they believe is necessary medical care due to the cost, and Hispanics and African-Americans are twice as likely to go without services, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research conference on the Science of Health Care Disparities.
"These survivors are either going without, or significantly delaying, dental care, general medical care, mental health care or prescription drugs," said Kathryn Weaver, Ph.D., a cancer prevention fellow at the National Cancer Institute.
Although insurance status did play a role, foregoing care due to cost still persisted among the insured. "There are significant out-of-pocket expenses, even for those with insurance," said Weaver.
Weaver and colleagues used data from the Center for Disease Control's National Health Interview Survey to identify 6,602 adult cancer survivors. Of these survivors, 64.3 percent were female, 4.8 percent were Hispanic, 6.4 percent were non-Hispanic black and 88.8 percent were non-Hispanic white. The survey is conducted annually and questions about 30,000 to 40,000 households.
Overall, the prevalence of foregoing medical care due to cost was 7.8 percent for general medical care, 9.9 percent for prescription medication, 11.3 percent for dental care and 2.7 percent for mental health care.
Compared to non-Hispanic whites, Hispanics were 2.14-fold more likely to forego prescription medications due to cost concerns and African-Americans were 87 percent more likely to forego prescriptions. For dental care, Hispanics were 2.31-fold more likely to go without and African-Americans were 57 percent more likely.
These differences persisted after statistical adjustments for education, health insurance coverage and non-cancer medical comorbidities.
"Efforts to expand insurance coverage might go some way toward addressing these problems, but absent that, clinicians need to be more aware that their patients are not getting these services and work to try to connect them to charity or low-cost care," said Weaver.
The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world's oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 28,000 basic, translational and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and 80 other countries. The AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment and patient care. The AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. The AACR's most recent publication and its sixth major journal, Cancer Prevention Research, is dedicated exclusively to cancer prevention, from preclinical research to clinical trials. The AACR also publishes CR, a magazine for cancer survivors and their families, patient advocates, physicians and scientists. CR provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship and advocacy.