Racial disparities in cervical cancer mortality over time.

Abstract

5604 Background: The aim of this study is to examine changes over time in survival for African-American (AA) and white women diagnosed with cervical cancer (CeCa). Methods: Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program data 9 for 1983-2007 were used for this analysis. Kaplan–Meier and Cox proportional hazards survival methods were used to assess differences in survival by race at 5-year intervals. Results: The study included 23,722 women; including 19,777 whites and 3,945 AA. AAs were older (51.4 vs. 49 years; p<0.001), had a higher rate of regional (38.3% vs. 31.7; p<0.001) and distant metastasis (10.5% vs. 8.5; p<0.001). AAs received less frequently cancer-directed surgery (53.1% vs. 65.7%; p<0.001), and more frequently radiotherapy (56.9% vs. 47.3%; p<0.001). AAs had a hazard ratio (HR) of 1.40 (95% CI, 1.31-1.49) of CeCa mortality compared to whites. Adjusting for SEER registry, marital status, stage, age, surgery, radiotherapy, grade and histology, AA women had a HR of 1.15 (95% CI, 1.07-1.24) of CeCa related mortality. AAs had a higher HR of all cause mortality and CeCa related mortality for all the five-year diagnosis cohorts (Table). After adjusting for the same variables, there was a significant difference in survival in the 1988-1992 group (HR 1.26; 95% CI 1.09-1.47). Conclusions: The present data indicates significant survival differences by race for women with invasive CeCa. After adjusting for SEER registry, marital status, stage, age, surgery, radiotherapy, grade and histology, only between 1988-1992 there was a difference in survival between the groups. [Table: see text]