Hispanic vs. Caucasian Race/Ethnicity in Adrenocortical Carcinoma Patients

BACKGROUND/AIM: In primaries other than adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC), Hispanic race/ethnicity may predispose to higher stage at initial diagnosis and may result in worse survival. We tested the association between Hispanic race/ethnicity and cancer specific mortality (CSM) in ACC patients in addition to testing for differences in other-cause mortality (OCM) rates between Hispanics and Caucasians.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Within Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (2004-2018), we identified 1,060 ACC patients: 167 (15.8%) Hispanics vs. 893 (84.2%) Caucasians. Propensity score matching (age, sex, grade, T, N and M stages, treatment types), cumulative incidence plots Poisson-smoothing and competing risk regression (CRR) were used.

RESULTS: Compared to Caucasians, Hispanics were younger (51 vs. 57 years, p<0.001) and presented higher rates of T3-4 primary tumor stage (52.7% vs. 42.8%, p=0.007). No other statistically significant differences were observed for grade, lymph node invasion, distant metastases, European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumors (ENSAT) stage and treatment type (p>0.05 in all cases). After matching (1:3), 167 Hispanics and 501 Caucasians remained and were included in CRR analyses. In Hispanics, five-year CSM rates were 38.0% and 78.8% in respectively ENSAT stages I-II and III-IV vs. 34.1% and 74.4% in Caucasians. Overall, five-year OCM rates were 10.7% vs. 9.0% in Hispanics and Caucasians, respectively. In multivariable CRR models, Hispanic race/ethnicity was not an independent predictor for higher CSM (hazard ratio=1.18, p=0.2).

CONCLUSION: In ACC, relative to Caucasians, Hispanic race/ethnicity is associated with lower age at initial diagnosis, but not with higher tumor stage or survival disadvantage.