Association of Care at Minority-Serving vs Non-Minority-Serving Hospitals With Use of Palliative Care Among Racial/Ethnic Minorities With Metastatic Cancer in the United States.

Importance: It is not known whether racial/ethnic differences in receipt of palliative care are attributable to different treatment of minorities or lower utilization of palliative care at the relatively small number of hospitals that treat a large portion of minority patients.

Objective: To assess the association of receipt of palliative care among patients with metastatic cancer with receipt of treatment at minority-serving hospitals (MSHs) vs non-MSHs.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective cohort study used Participant Use Files of the National Cancer Database, a prospectively maintained, hospital-based cancer registry consisting of all patients treated at more than 1500 US hospitals, to collect data from individuals older than 40 years with metastatic prostate, lung, colon, and breast cancer, diagnosed from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2015.