Black Women With Endometrial Cancer Less Likely To Survive Than White Women, Study Finds
Black women with endometrial cancer are 60% more likely to die from their condition than their white counterparts, according to a study published in the March issue of Cancer, Reuters Health reports. For the study, Jason Wright of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons examined national data on 80,915 patients who were diagnosed with uterine cancer between 1998 and 2004. Seven percent of the women were black.
Black women also were significantly younger at the time of diagnosis and had more advanced and more aggressive tumors than white women, according to the study. Wright said, "In our study, we noted that this survival differential has persisted over the last 15 years and there still remains a difference in survival." He noted, "The difference in survival doesn't appear to be entirely due to difference in tumor types or stage between whites and blacks and also doesn't appear to be entirely due to differences in treatment," adding, "This implies there may be differences in the underlying biology of endometrial cancer between whites and blacks."
Wright said, "I think the take-home point is that despite improvements in diagnosis and treatment for endometrial cancer, black women are still at increased risk to die from their cancer and we need to consider that black women have aggressive tumors when planning treatment" (Rauscher, Reuters Health, 2/10).
An abstract of the study is available online.