Survival trends among patients with mesothelioma: Impact of initial therapy at academic centers

e20540 Background: Mesothelioma is an aggressive malignancy with few approved treatment options. Rare malignancies are often seen in higher volume at academic centers which are considered equipped with better expertise. Outcomes of mesothelioma in the novel therapeutic era and impact of initial treatment at academic versus community centers have not been reported. Methods: Mesothelioma cases from 2004-2019 were collected from The National Cancer Database (NCDB). Epidemiologic factors including sex, age, income, education, insurance status and location were assessed as well as overall survival across academic and community centers. Overall survival (OS) was plotted by type of treatment facility, accounting for several factors available in NCDB. Results: A total of 30136 mesothelioma patients were included in the analysis. 13482 (44.7%) were treated in academic centers and 16654 (55.3%) were treated in community practice locations. A higher proportion of patients with comorbidity scores of 2 or higher were seen in the community setting as compared to the academic setting (12.2% vs 7.6%). The distribution of diagnostic stages was similar between academic and community settings (14.1% vs 14.5% Stage I; 28.5% vs 30.7% Stage IV). A higher number of patients received surgery (39.6% vs 21.3%), chemotherapy (59% vs 45.3%), and immunotherapy (5.2% vs 3.5%) when presenting to academic rather than community settings, respectively (p value < 0.001). OS for all patients was 1.093 years (range: 0-16.47 years) for those treated in an academic center and 0.66 years (95% CI: 0-16.690; p < 0.001) for those treated in the community. Conclusions: Data from NCDB database shows that treatment of mesothelioma at academic centers was associated with improved overall survival when compared to receiving treatment in the community despite seeing similar proportions of early and late-stage disease at presentation. Patients were more likely to receive treatment of any kind if presenting to academic centers.