Disparities in Geographic Accessibility of National Cancer Institute Cancer Centers in the United States

The National Cancer Institute (NCI) Cancer Centers form the backbone of the cancer care system in the United States since their inception in the early 1970s. Most studies on their geographic accessibility used primitive measures, and did not examine the disparities across urbanicity or demographic groups. This research uses an advanced accessibility method, termed “2-step floating catchment area (2SFCA)” and implemented in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), to capture the degree of geographic access to NCI Cancer Centers by accounting for competition intensity for the services and travel time between residents and the facilities. The results indicate that urban advantage is pronounced as the average accessibility is highest in large central metro areas, declines to large fringe metro, medium metro, small metro, micropolitan and noncore rural areas. Population under the poverty line are disproportionally concentrated in lower accessibility areas. However, on average Non-Hispanic White have the lowest geographic accessibility, followed by Hispanic, Non-Hispanic Black and Asian, and the differences are statistically significant. The “reversed racial disadvantage” in NCI Cancer Center accessibility seems counterintuitive but is consistent with an influential prior study; and it is in contrast to the common observation of co-location of concentration of minority groups and people under the poverty line.