Lung cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy during the time of a declared hurricane disaster had worse survival rates than those who completed treatment under normal conditions in a new study, published online July 16 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers from the American Cancer Society assessed the outcomes of 1,734 U.S. patients who received radiotherapy for non-small cell lung cancer when a hurricane disaster was declared in the vicinity of the hospital between 2004 and 2014. They found that these patients spent a significantly longer amount of time undergoing treatment and had worse overall survival rates than lung cancer patients who underwent radiotherapy under standard circumstances.
To be specific, the hurricane cohort had a mean survival time of 29 months and a five-year survival estimate of 14.5%, compared with 31 months and 15.4% for the standard patient population. The adjusted relative mortality risk was also 27% greater for the hurricane cohort than for the standard patient population.
"Cancer patients receiving radiotherapy are a vulnerable population, and right now, there are no recommended strategies to mitigate treatment delays, so disaster management efforts that include tactics to identify patients, arrange for their treatment to be transferred, and to eliminate out-of-network insurance charges should be considered," lead author Leticia Nogueira, PhD, said in a statement.
