Study Examines Gaps In Cancer Survival Between White and African Americans

New research findings may explain the racial gap in cancer survival, providing clues to why white patients often outlive blacks even when they have what appear to be the same cancers.

While the American Cancer Society reports that U.S. cancer deaths continue to decline compared to prior years, the news has been a mixed bag for one segment of the population, African-Americans.  While, they are dying less of cancer, the disease still kills them more often according to the American Association for Critical Illness Insurance.

Now, new insights from researchers at the University of Maryland reveal some insight into the gap.  Throat cancer and cancers of the head and neck have increased sharply in recent years, apparently because of the human papillomavirus.  This is the same sexually transmitted virus that causes cervical cancer and is the target of an increasingly popular vaccine for girls.  The virus can also be spread through oral sex, causing cancer of the throat and tonsils.

The new research commenced when University of Maryland scientists discovered that their white patients with throat cancer were surviving 70 months on average, compared with 25 months for their black patients, even though all were treated at the same hospital.

The racial disparity in survival for oropharyngeal cancers explained most of the gap between blacks and whites for all head and neck cancers, the researchers said.  “We were shocked to see this in our own institution, where more than half of the patients we treat are African-American,” said Dr. Kevin J. Cullen, director of the Greenebaum Cancer Center at University of Maryland and senior author of the new study, in the September issue of Cancer Prevention Research.

The gap between white and African American patients has often been explained as a result of late diagnosis among African-Americans, lack of access to care and less aggressive treatment, but experts said that in the case of oropharyngeal cancer, there appeared to be distinct biological differences between the tumors.

This suggests that the racial gap in survival for this particular cancer may trace back to social and cultural differences between blacks and whites, including different sexual practices, experts said.   At a briefing for reporters, leading cancer experts called the new report a landmark paper that would transform the treatment of oropharyngeal cancers and challenge doctors to develop new treatment options for patients with HPV-negative tumors.