Racial Differences Found in Partial Nephrectomy Use

SAN DIEGO—Hispanics and Asian-Pacific Islanders are less likely than whites to undergo partial nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma (RCC), researchers reported at the American Urological Association annual meeting.

J. Joy Lee, MD, and colleagues at Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., accessed the California Cancer Registry for all incident cases of RCC from 2001-2005. Of 17,216 patients, 5,493 presented with stage T1 tumors.

Compared with whites, Hispanics and Asian-Pacific Islanders had a significant 20% and 28% decreased likelihood of undergoing PN. Compared with patients in the highest quintile of SES, those in the first, second, and third quintiles had a significant 38%, 21%, and 34% decreased odds of undergoing PN.

In addition, compared with privately insured patients, Medicare patients were 41% less likely to undergo PN.