Factors related to the receipt of adjuvant therapy among patients with gastric cancer in Western China

摘要

Abstract Objective Adjuvant therapy following curative resection has been shown to be associated with significant survival benefits in patients with gastric cancer (GC); however, this treatment is not available to some patients. The aim was to investigate factors associated with the receipt of adjuvant therapy among GC patients. Methods This is a retrospective study including patients with stage IB‐IIIC gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent curative resection between November 2010 and July 2014. Patients were identified using a database from West China Hospital, Sichuan University. Univariate and multivariable analyses examined factors associated with adjuvant therapy receipt. Results A total of 1,476 patients were included. Among these, 852 patients were eligible, with 157 patients not receiving adjuvant therapy. Age, education, income, residence, medical insurance, employment status and visiting an oncologist were independently associated with adjuvant therapy receipt by univariate analysis. After adjustment for other factors, medical insurance ( p ?=?0.005), employment status ( p ?=?0.008) and visiting an oncologist ( p ??0.001) remained significantly correlated, and income was near the threshold of a significant difference ( p ?=?0.050). Conclusion Our study indicates that disparities do exist in determining the receipt of adjuvant therapy in GC patients according to income, insurance and employment status, and highlight the importance of visiting an oncologist postoperatively.