Background:

The Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) population is among the fastest-growing population in the USA. However, this is not reflected in scientific research, in which ethnic groups are often combined. We identified trends in treatment and outcomes for pancreatic cancer in a disaggregated AANHPI population. We hypothesize that patients from different AANHPI groups have differences in survival.

Patients and methods:

A retrospective analysis of the National Cancer Database between 2010 and 2019 identified patients treated for pancreatic cancer. We identified demographic factors for patients of Caucasian, African American, and disaggregated Asian subpopulations. Survival curves were generated and multivariate analysis was performed to help determine which factors impacted overall survival.

Results:

A total of 296,448 patients met the inclusion criteria. Of those, 8568 (3%) patients were Asian. Median survival of AANHPI patients was 11.3 months, as compared with Caucasians (8.9 months) and African Americans (8.1 months) (p < 0.0001). Asian Indians had the highest median survival (14.3 months), whereas the Japanese subpopulation had the lowest (7.6 months) (p < 0.0001). There were significant differences in median survival between the different AANHPI subpopulations irrespective of stage. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that belonging to an AANHPI racial/ethnic group, excluding Japanese and Filipino, was associated with decreased risk of overall mortality.

Discussion:

Significant differences were identified in the overall median survival for patients with pancreatic cancer between AANHPI subpopulations. Disparities in socioeconomic factors may have played a role in overall survival. This study highlights the need to include disaggregated data in future studies to subdue disparities in cancer care for patients.