title: Does equal treatment yield equal outcomes? The impact of race on survival in epithelial ovarian cancer.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine if race impacts the survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer in a large academic medical center.
  
  
  METHODS
  Demographic and clinical-pathologic information from patients treated at the University of Chicago from 1992-2007 were analyzed. Continuous variables were analyzed with t tests and categorical variables with chi square tests. Survival curves were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier methods and Cox proportional hazard models were constructed for both overall and disease free survival.
  
  
  RESULTS
  209 women with epithelial ovarian cancer were included in the study, 163 (78%) white and 46 (22%) African American. The baseline demographic characteristics and clinico-pathologic factors such as disease stage, grading, CA-125 levels, rates of optimal debulking (<1 cm residual tumor), platinum sensitivity and American Society of Anesthesiologists score (ASA) were similar between the groups. The median overall survival for African American women was similar: 37.2 months (95% Confidence Interval (CI): 22.5, 52.9) while it was 34.1 months (95% CI: 27.4, 42.6) for white women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is no evidence of a racial disparity in either treatment or survival for ovarian cancer patients treated at a large academic center. Given that large epidemiologic studies suggested a difference in survival between African American and white women, other sources of disparities must be sought.
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, The University of Chicago, 5841 S Maryland Ave, MC 2050, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
authors.forename: Mishka
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terplan
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Temkin
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tergas
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lengyel
mesh_terms: D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015331:Cohort Studies; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*