Racial Disparities Remain in Cancer Care

African-American patients are significantly less likely than white patients to receive therapy for various types of cancer, a U.S. study found.

Dr. Cary P. Gross of the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., and colleagues used data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results-Medicare to evaluate cancer care received by Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer from 1992 through 2002.

The investigators determined whether there had been any changes in care for the over-all Medicare population or for white and black patients considered separately. A total of 7,775 colon, 1,745 rectal, 11,207 lung, 40,457 breast and 82,238 prostate cancer cases were evaluated.

The study, published online ahead of print in the journal Cancer, found there was no decrease in the magnitude of racial disparities between 1992 and 2002. Black patients were significantly less likely than white patients to receive therapy for cancers of the lung, breast, colon and prostate.

Efforts in the last decade to mitigate cancer therapy disparities appear to have been unsuccessful, the authors said in a statement.