THURSDAY, Feb. 8, 2024 (HealthDay News) — About one-third of patients newly diagnosed with cancer reported having a major adverse financial event (AFE) before diagnosis, and those with previous AFEs are more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage cancer, according to a study published online Feb. 6 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Joan L. Warren, Ph.D., from the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, and colleagues identified patients aged 20 to 69 years diagnosed with cancer during 2014 to 2015 from the Seattle, Louisiana, and Georgia Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results population-based cancer registries. The association of AFEs with later-stage cancer diagnoses (stages III/IV) was examined in sex-specific analyses.

The researchers identified 101,649 patients with cancer, of whom 36.2 percent had a major AFE reported before diagnosis. The mean and median AFE closest to diagnosis was 93 and 77 months, respectively. Non-Hispanic Black, unmarried, and low-income patients most often had AFEs. Compared with those with no AFE, individuals with previous AFEs were more likely to be diagnosed with later-stage cancer (odds ratios, 1.09 and 1.18 for men and women, respectively) after adjustment for age, race, marital status, income, registry, and cancer type. There was no variation seen in the associations between AFEs prediagnosis and later-stage disease by AFE timing.

“Our findings raise substantial concerns for the outcomes for people with an AFE before cancer diagnosis who are among the most vulnerable of all patients with cancer,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

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