Cancer Therapy Center

Much like the race gap seen in bladder cancer, a new study (to be published in Cancer’s November edition, reveals that survival rates for advanced endometrial cancer are 26 percent worse for black women than white women.

Data came from four studies of women with advanced endometrial (the inner lining of the uterus) cancer. Dr. G. Larry Maxwell and colleagues combined the data from all four studies to check the survival rates for 169 black women and 982 white women. Maxwell, who works in the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, found that women in those four studies received comparable, aggressive medical care for endometrial cancer, though the average survival was one year for white women and 10.6 months for black women. The odds of surviving for two years were 26 percent for white women compared to 14 percent for black women.

The study does not attempt to pinpoin the precise reasons for the racial gap, however the researchers note that black women were more likely to have “poorly differentiated tumors”, meaning those cells may be more aggressive. Other biological, socioeconmic, and cultural factors were not investigated.

Black Americans are 35% more likely to die from Bladder Cancer, a figure attributed to the stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis.

Dr. Cheryl T. Lee and colleagues at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor examined trends in tumor discovery, treatment and survival among 93,093 patients — 89,491 whites and 3,612 blacks — with bladder cancer. The observation period began in 1973 and ended in 1999, divided into 5-year intervals. The average follow-up time per patient was 10 years. Data analysis showed that bladder cancer is diagnosed at more advanced stages among blacks, especially black women.

Overall, at the time of diagnosis, 3 percent of white patients had metastatic (extensively spread), 18 percent had ‘regionalized’, and 79 percent had ‘localized’ bladder cancer. For blacks, 6 percent had metastatic, 26 percent regionalized, and 67 percent had localized cancer.

While the study did not examine genetic susceptibilities, Lee stated that she believed many other factors (beyond tumor stage and grade) contributed to the poorer survival rates.