There is a large disparity with the incidence of colorectal cancer between blacks and whites, more so than any other cancer, according to findings from researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center (Seattle).
The findings were published online in the inaugural issue of Springer's journal Hormones and Cancer, a publication of the Endocrine Society (Chevy Chase, Maryland).
"We identified people in the study through a cancer registry," senior author Christopher Li, MD, PhD, an associate member of the Public Health Sciences Division at the Hutchinson Center told Medical Device Daily. "We looked at cancer patients from 1992 to 2004."
In the study, Li and researchers sifted through data from 12 population-based urban cancer registries throughout the continental U.S. and Hawaii, which represented about 14% of the population. The group zeroed in on distant-stage cancers for which screening tests were widely available.
The trends from the study seem to show that the disparity in breast cancer among white and black patients seems to be consistent and the disparity in prostate cancer seem to have somewhat decreased over this period of time.
This portion of the study looked at data on 7,237 women with newly diagnosed distant-stage breast cancer. Of these women, 1,364 were black and 5,873 were white. Overall, rates of advanced breast cancer remained essentially constant among women of both races throughout the study period, affecting about 18 out of 100,000 black women and 12 out of 100,000 white women.
Li said that the breast cancer occurrences suggest "that factors other than screening may be contributing to this persistent disparity, including differences in both lifestyle and genetics."
The portion of the study that looked at prostate cancer occurrences included data from 2,801 men with late-stage cancer, 791 black and 2,010 white. The incidence of distant-stage prostate cancer among black men fell from 50 cases in 100,000 at the start of the study to 19.8 cases in 100,000 at the end of the data collection process. This level was still three times higher than that of white men, but it was a significant decline nonetheless.
He added that prostate cancer possibly saw a decrease because there was a greater push for screening and more patients were more aware of the testing and screening techniques that care providers offered.
"During this time period it became increasingly apparent that prostate cancer was an important public health problem in the African American community and there was a lot of effort to address this issue by raising awareness of screening," Li said. "I think that maybe we're seeing some of the benefits of that work here."
But the greatest red flag to the research team came from the colorectal cancer patient portion of the study. The study looked at data from 8,920 people that were diagnosed with distant-stage colorectal cancer. About 1,669 were black and 7,251 were white.
The relative risk of advanced colorectal cancer was significantly elevated in blacks throughout the study period.
In 1992, blacks were 60% more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage colorectal cancer as compared to whites, and by 2004 that likelihood had doubled.
Li told MDD that his team speculated that the disparity was growing because of the lack availability and the cost of screening in minority communities.
"I think where we go from here is to try and get a better understanding of how we can better serve these underserved populations," he told MDD.
Li and other researchers that took part in the study concluded that "blacks continue to have a disproportionately high cancer burden," and therefore "continued multipronged efforts aimed at improving access to breast, colorectal and prostate cancer prevention, screening, diagnostics and treatment services are warranted."
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