EMERGING research from the University of South Carolina have revealed racial and ethnic differences in early death after cancer diagnosis. These findings reinforce the need for tailored monitoring of patients following diagnosis, and further research efforts to better understand these significant disparities.
Led by Matthew W Lee, researchers in the division of gynaecologic oncology at the University of California evaluated data from 461,000 women with gynaecologic malignancies from 2000 to 2020 in the U.S. from the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program. These included uterine (n=242,709), tubo-ovarian (n=199,989), cervical (n=68,768), vulvar (n=22,991) and vaginal (n=6843). The primary outcome of the study was early death, defined as mortality from any cause occurring within 2 months of the index cancer diagnosis.
Results found that early death occurred in 21,569 patients (4.7%), including 10.5%, 5.5%, 2.9%, 2.5%, and 2.4% for tubo-ovarian, vaginal, cervical, uterine, and vulvar cancers, respectively (P>0.001). Additionally, a race-ethnicity specific analysis was conducted, showing that non-Hispanic Black patients had the highest early death rates (14.5%). Interestingly, in tubo-ovarian cancer, the early death rate decreased over time by 33% in non-Hispanic Black patients from 17.4% to 11.8% (adjusted odds ratio, 0.67; 95% confidence interval, 0.53–0.85) and 23% in non-Hispanic White patients from 12.3% to 9.5% (adjusted odds ratio, 0.77; 95% confidence interval, 0.71–0.85), respectively.
Most strikingly, approximately 5% of patients with gynaecologic malignancies died within the first 2 months following cancer diagnosis, and the early death rate exceeded 10% in non-Hispanic Black individuals with tubo-ovarian cancer. These concerning statistics call for greater attention to non-Hispanic Black individuals diagnosed with cancer.
Helena Bradbury, EMJ
Reference
Lee MW et al. Racial and ethnic differences in early death among gynecologic malignancy. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 2024.
