The study found that the five-year survival rate for African-American patients was 57 percent and 68 percent for whites. The difference was even more pronounced when looking just at female patients. The difference in death rates between African-American women and white women was 25 percent, compared to just 11 percent for men.
The authors hypothesize that the reasons for the difference could be a later stage diagnosis, differences in treatment, a biologically more aggressive disease in African-American patients or that African Americans don’t respond as well to chemotherapy.
“Although these factors are important in patient outcome, perhaps the most relevant hypothesis is that African-American patients are less likely to have access to routine cancer care, resulting in a poorer patient condition and later stage at diagnosis,” the study authors wrote.
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