Hao S, Snyder RA, Irish W, et al. - Studies have described the independent impact of both health insurance status and race on colon cancer (CC) care delivery and outcomes. In order to determine the relative importance of these factors in explaining racial and insurance disparities, researchers herein examined the correlation and interaction of race and insurance with CC treatment disparities.

• A total of 353,998 patients diagnosed with stage I to III CC were included from the National Cancer Database (NCDB) from 2006 to 2016.

• Black patients less frequently undergo surgical removal and receive chemotherapy, and Hispanic patients less frequently undergo surgical removal controlling for insurance type.

• Likelihood to undergo surgical removal and receive chemotherapy was also less for patients with Medicaid and those without insurance.

• Among patients with private and Medicare insurance, Black or Hispanic patients less frequently underwent surgical removal.

• In addition, Black patients less frequently received chemotherapy after removal.

• Overall findings suggest that even with private and Medicare insurance, standard of care for CC is less frequently reported among certain underrepresented and underprivileged minorities such as Blacks and Hispanics.