Identifying newly diagnosed Hispanic cancer patients who use a physician with a Spanish-language practice, for studies of quality of cancer treatment.

BACKGROUND

Language barriers may affect cancer treatment choices among U.S. Hispanic-Latino patients newly diagnosed with cancer. This study examined use of a physician with a Spanish-language practice (SLP) by Hispanic patients diagnosed with a cancer reported to a population-based cancer registry.

METHODS

Data on all 1,874 Connecticut Hispanic patients diagnosed with cancer in 1999-2002 were obtained from the Connecticut Tumor Registry, including the follow-up physician (FUP) responsible for the patient's medical care around the time of cancer diagnosis. FUPs were compared to a list of Spanish surnames (SS) to identify potential Hispanic ethnicity. A statewide database from a survey of licensed physicians was used to identify SLPs. For the two most common cancers (breast and prostate), SLP was examined in relation to radiotherapy after breast-conserving surgery (202 patients) and for prostate cancer (207 patients).

RESULTS

The 1,874 patients had 829 different FUPs, of whom 783 had information on SLP; only 37 FUPs had a SS but 269 had a SLP. Of the 1,727 Hispanic patients with known FUP, only 3.5% had a SS FUP, while 36.8% had a FUP with a SLP. Having a FUP with a SLP was statistically significantly associated with receipt of radiotherapy for breast cancer but not for prostate cancer.

CONCLUSION

This methodology should be explored in states with larger Hispanic populations, and future efforts should include efforts to obtain data on other cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy and hormone therapy).