title: Racial and ethnic differences in time to treatment for patients with localized prostate cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the racial/ethnic differences in the time to treatment among patients with prostate cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  All 3448 men diagnosed with localized prostate cancer at Kaiser Permanente Southern California from 2006 to 2007 were identified. The patients were passively followed up through their electronic health records until definitive treatment, defined as the first treatment given with curative intent within 1 year of diagnosis. Cox proportional hazard models, with PROC SURVEYPHREG procedures, were used to account for the variability in time to the different treatments within multiple medical centers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall median time to treatment was 102 days, with modest differences for whites (100 days), blacks (104 days), and Hispanics (99 days). In the adjusted model, black men had a significantly longer time to surgery (adjusted hazard ratio 0.74, 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.91) compared with white men. Hispanic men (adjusted hazard ratio 1.44, 95% confidence interval 1.07-1.74) experienced significantly shorter times to radiotherapy compared with white men. No difference was found in the time to radiotherapy or brachytherapy for black men relative to white men.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that minimal racial/ethnic differences exist in the time to treatment after the diagnosis of prostate cancer in this equal-access setting. This is encouraging, but does not mean that all men were satisfied with their treatment choice.
authors: Department of Research and Evaluation, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, Pasadena, CA 91101, USA. kimberly.r.porter@kp.org
authors: Kimberly R
authors: KR
authors: Porter
authors: Jin-Wen Y
authors: JW
authors: Hsu
authors: Gary W
authors: GW
authors: Chien
authors: Anny H
authors: AH
authors: Xiang
authors: Howard
authors: H
authors: Jung
authors: Chun
authors: C
authors: Chao
authors: Steven J
authors: SJ
authors: Jacobsen
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000368:Aged; D001918:Brachytherapy; D002140:California; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006630:Hispanic or Latino / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000532:radiotherapy / Q000601:surgery; D061665:Time-to-Treatment; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*