title: Changes in survival by ethnicity of patients with cancer between 1992-1996 and 2002-2006: is the discrepancy decreasing?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Patients of minority race/ethnicity have lower survival after diagnosis with most types of cancer. Little data are available concerning changes in disparity over time. Here, we examine changes in survival by race/ethnicity of patients with common cancers in two recent time periods.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used modeled period analysis to determine relative survival (RS) for non-Hispanic white (nHw), African-American (AA), and Hispanic patients in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database diagnosed with common solid and hematological malignancies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five-year RS improved overall and for nHw for each tumor examined, ranging from + 2% points (pancreatic cancer) to + 16.4% points [non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, (NHL)]. Greater improvement was observed for AA and Hispanics than nHw in breast and prostate cancer and NHL. Less improvement was observed for AA and Hispanics than for nHw for lung and pancreatic cancer. No statistically significant improvement was observed for AA and Hispanics with myeloma or acute leukemia. Survival disparities ranging from 0.5% points (myeloma) to 13.1% points (breast) between nHw and AA remained.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Progress has been made in decreasing disparities in survival between nHw and minorities in breast cancer, prostate cancer, and NHL. Little progress has been made in reducing disparities for the other studied cancers.
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany; Division of Hematology, Department of Medicine, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, USA. Electronic address: pultedi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pulte
authors.affiliation: School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: M T
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Redaniel
authors.affiliation: Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brenner
authors.affiliation: School of Social and Community Medicine, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jeffreys
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006630:Hispanic or Latino; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000208:ethnology / Q000401:mortality*; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012044:Regression Analysis; D018426:SEER Program; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People; D055815:Young Adult