Abstract
Purpose: African-Americans (AA) have a higher incidence of and lower survival from colorectal cancer (CRC) compared with European Americans (EA). In the present study, statewide, population-based data from South Carolina Central Cancer Registry are used to investigate the relationship between race and age on advanced-stage CRC survival. Methods: The study population was comprised of 3,865 advanced pathologically documented colon and rectal adenocarcinoma cases diagnosed between 01 January 1996 and 31 December 2006: 2,673 (69 %) EA and 1,192 (31 %) AA. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to generate median survival time and corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (CI) by race, age, and gender. Factors associated with survival were evaluated by fitting Cox proportional hazards regression models to generate hazard ratios (HR) and 95 % CI. Results: We observed a significant interaction between race and age on CRC survival (p = 0.04). Among younger patients (<50 years), AA race was associated with a 1.34 times (95 % CI 1.06-1.71) higher risk of death compared with EA. Among older patients, we observed a modest increase in risk of death among AA men compared with EA [HR 1.16 (95 % CI 1.01-1.32)] but no difference by race between women [HR 0.94 (95 % CI 0.82-1.08)]. Moreover, we observed that the disparity in survival has worsened over the past 15 years. Conclusions: Future studies that integrate clinical, molecular, and treatment-related data are needed for advancing understanding of the racial disparity in CRC survival, especially for those <50 years old.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 463-471 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Cancer Causes and Control |
Volume | 24 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- African-American
- Colon cancer
- Metastatic
- Survival
- Young-onset
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Oncology
- Cancer Research