ABSTRACT
Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among men and women in the United States. Despite a substantial decline in lung cancer incidence and mortality across all races in the last few decades, medically underserved racial and ethnic minority populations continue to carry the greatest burden of disease throughout the lung cancer continuum. Black individuals experience a higher incidence of lung cancer due to lower rates of low-dose computed tomography screening, which translate into advanced disease stage at diagnosis and poorer survival outcomes compared with White individuals. With respect to treatment, Black patients are less likely to receive gold standard surgery, have access to biomarker testing or high-quality treatment compared with White patients. The reasons for those disparities are multifactorial and include socioeconomic (eg, poverty, lack of health insurance, and inadequate education), and geographic inequalities. The objective of this article is to review the sources of racial and ethnic disparities in lung cancer, and to propose recommendations to help address them.
Subject(s)
Ethnicity , Lung Neoplasms , Male , Humans , Female , United States/epidemiology , Healthcare Disparities , Minority Groups , Lung Neoplasms/diagnosis , Lung Neoplasms/epidemiology , Racial GroupsABSTRACT
: The spread of COVID-19 has challenged practices across the United States to dramatically change inpatient and outpatient practices to focus on containing spread of the virus and accommodate the anticipated increase in volume of acute illness. Despite this transition, practices will need to continue to accommodate evaluation of newly diagnosed malignancies, routine postoperative visits, and acute postoperative issues. Building on an existing telemedicine framework, we aim to describe rapid transition in our outpatient care to a telehealth model in a general thoracic surgery practice during COVID-19.