Black women with uterine cancer at greater death risk than white patients

Washington, Feb 9 (ANI): A new study suggests that the risk of mortality among black women with uterine cancer may be higher than that in their white counterparts.

The researchers found that black women were 60 percent more likely to die from their tumours than white women, and relatively little progress has been made over the past two decades to narrow this racial difference.

During the study, the team led by Dr. Jason Wright, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, analysed the clinical data of 80,915 patients.

Seven percent of the patients were black, who were documented to have uterine cancer between 1988 and 2004.

The data was divided into three groups based on when women were diagnosed: 1988-1993, 1994-1998, and 1999-2004.

The findings revealed that black patients were significantly younger and had more advanced and more aggressive tumours than white women.

The advanced cancers occurred in 27 percent of blacks between 1988 and 1993, and in 28 percent from 1999 to 2004.

However, the corresponding figures for white women were 14 percent from 1988 to 1993 and 17 percent from 1999 to 2004.

And for each of the three time periods, survival was worse for blacks than for whites.

The researchers also found that, over time, the incidence of serous tumours and clear cell tumours (two aggressive types of cancer) increased, and the use of radiation decreased for both races.

Lymph node dissection was performed to determine tumour stage more commonly in both races in recent years, and its use was well matched between the two groups (45 percent of blacks and 48 percent of whites).

The investigators note that biological differences might also play a role in the discrepancy in the survival rates of blacks and whites.

The racial differences in risk factors like obesity, medical comorbidities, and oestrogen use have also been proposed as contributing to observed racial disparities in uterine cancer survival. (ANI)