Abstract B150: Early and late-stage colorectal cancer incidence mostly declined for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White but not American Indian individuals in New Mexico from 2004-2022

Background: Colorectal cancer treatments are most effective in the early stages. Trends in the stage at which people are diagnosed with colorectal cancer can help to identify deficiencies or improvements in early diagnosis over time and inform screening and public health efforts. This study aimed to examine trends in stage at diagnosis of colorectal cancer for Hispanic, Non-Hispanic White, and American Indian adults in New Mexico (NM). Methods: A total of 12,568 incident colorectal cancer cases among NM residents were catalogued by the NM Tumor Registry – a population-based central cancer registry – during the time period 2004 and 2022. This study included Non-Hispanic White [NHW] (n = 6,957), Hispanic White [Hispanic] (n =4,735), and American Indian or Alaskan Native [AI/AN] (n = 876) individuals aged 50 years and older at diagnosis. Average annual age-specific incidence rates of colorectal cancer were calculated, stratified by race and ethnicity, sex, and stage at diagnosis. Temporal changes in annual incidence were assessed using Joinpoint regression analysis and Monte Carlo permutation tests with significance set at alpha = 0.05. Results: From 2004-2022, there was a decrease in early and late-stage colorectal cancer cases for Hispanic individuals of both sexes. Annual percent change (APC) ranged from -1.77 (p < 0.05) for Hispanic males late-stage, -1.80 (p < 0.05) for Hispanic females late-stage, -2.10 (p > 0.05) for Hispanic females early-stage, to -3.51 (p < 0.05) for Hispanic males early-stage. For the NHW population, there were declines in both early- and late-stage colorectal cancer cases for both sexes across most periods, except in early-stage cases among NHW females between 2013-2022 (APC = 0.21). For NHW males, a consistent decline in both early-stage (APC = - 8.23 from 2004-2012, p < 0.05; -1.75 from 2012-2022, p > 0.05) and late-stage diagnoses (APC = -5.25 from 2004-2010, p < 0.05; -0.61 from 2010-2022, p > 0.05) was observed. Both early-stage (APC = -5.11 for 2004-2013, p < 0.05) and late-stage (APC = -2.63, p < 0.05) rates declined among females. In contrast, AI/AN individuals showed non-significant increasing trends in late-stage for males and slight non-significant decreases for all other groups. Early-stage rates declined in males (APC = -0.27, p > 0.05) and in females (APC = -0.56, p > 0.05), while late-stage rates increased or stayed nearly stable for both sexes (males: APC = 1.32, p > 0.05; females: APC = -0.18, p > 0.05). Conclusions: Trends in colorectal cancer incidence differ across racial and ethnic groups in New Mexico. During the study timeframe, early and late-stage colorectal cancer diagnoses declined for most Hispanic and NHW individuals. In contrast, early-stage diagnoses decreased, and late-stage diagnoses increased or were nearly stable for AI/AN individuals. The observed differences may be attributed to a mix of structural barriers resulting in differing risk factors or health care access and to recent initiatives to increase colon cancer screening among AI/AN individuals in New Mexico. Citation Format: Joseph O'Dell, Angela Meisner, Charles Wiggins. Early and late-stage colorectal cancer incidence mostly declined for Hispanic and Non-Hispanic White but not American Indian individuals in New Mexico from 2004-2022 [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 18th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities; 2025 Sep 18-21; Baltimore, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2025;34(9 Suppl):Abstract nr B150.