A matter of race: early-versus late-stage cancer diagnosis.
We compared the stage at which cancer is diagnosed and survival rates between African Americans and whites, for thirty-four solid tumors, using the population-based Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database. Whites were diagnosed at earlier stages than African Americans for thirty-one of the thirty-four tumor sites. Whites were significantly more likely than blacks to survive five years for twenty-six tumor sites; no cancer site had significantly superior survival among African Americans. These differences cannot be explained by screening behavior or risk factors; they point instead to the need for broad-based strategies to remedy racial inequality in cancer survival.
Virnig
Beth A
BA
Health Policy and Management, University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, USA. virni001@umn.edu
Baxter
Nancy N
NN
Habermann
Elizabeth B
EB
Feldman
Roger D
RD
Bradley
Cathy J
CJ
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D044469:Racial Groups; D018426:SEER Program; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology