Medical Student Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Disclosure(s):
Michael B. Lemonick, BS, MA: No financial relationships to disclose
Introduction: Early treatment for spinal metastases is crucial in preventing neurological deficit. Social determinants of health, such as race, remain understudied as factors that affect time to treatment. Our aim was to evaluate how patients’ race correlates with time to treatment.
Methods: Single institution radiology reports from January 2017- December 2021 were queried for spinal metastases. Race and time to treatment were obtained for each patient. Race was categorized as White or Caucasian, Black or African American, Asian, Hispanic, or Other, while time to treatment was defined as the number of days elapsed between initial radiographic imaging showing spine metastases and the subsequent treatment. Variables were analyzed using descriptive statistics and comparisons were performed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) (p < 0.05).
Results: Initial query resulted in 986 patients with complete race and treatment information available. Of this group, 420 (42.6%) identified as White or Caucasian, with an average time to treatment of 43.73 days (SD: 114.3); 243 (24.6%) as Black or African American, with an average time to treatment of 40.52 days (SD: 99.3); 102 (10.3%) as Asian, with an average time to treatment of 26.33 days (SD: 44.4); 35 (3.5%) as Hispanic, with an average time to treatment of 38.09 days (SD: 134.9); and 186 (18.9%) as Other, with an average time to treatment of 45.76 days (SD: 278.1). The overall average time to treatment was 41.3 days, while the median time to treatment was 13 days (SD: 152.8). No differences in time to treatment between races were observed (p=0.88).
Conclusion : Analysis of a single-institution database of spinal metastases found that the time to treatment did not differ significantly between patients of different races. Further investigation and analysis are warranted to assess the effects of race on treatment and medical outcomes.