Screening & Prevention
Race Predicts Cervical Cancer Survival
WASHINGTON, DC -- Race remains an independent predictor of cervical cancer survival for black women, even after accounting for stage of disease, treatment patterns, and other factors in their health care compared to that of white women, according to a study in the October issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Black women are twice as likely as white women to be diagnosed with cervical cancer and two to three times more likely to die from it.
Researchers at the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, and at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Medical Center in West Haven, CT, analyzed data on 6,050 women from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program of the National Cancer Institute. Although black women were more likely to be diagnosed at a later age and with a later stage of cervical cancer than white women, and to receive different therapy than white women -- a phenomenon that warrants further investigation, say the authors -- these differences do not account for such disparity in mortality rates.
The authors conclude that increased screening programs alone are unlikely to erase the racial differences in mortality: more studies are needed on such factors as comorbidity (whether black women patients could be sicker from other medical conditions), socioeconomic status, and clinical severity of the disease.
