Testicular cancer: a 13-year retrospective review of ethnic disparities in the Waikato region, New Zealand.

Abstract

The testicular cancer incidence in New Zealand is rising. We evaluated if testicular cancer outcomes differed by ethnicity in NZ. To study if ethnic disparities existed among testicular cancer patients and their outcomes treated at Waikato Regional Cancer Centre. Retrospective review of testicular cancer cases in the Medical Oncology database, Waikato Hospital, between 2001 and 2013 inclusive. Three hundred and twenty-five patients were seen, with median follow up of survivors being 101 (range 13-230) months. 95 (29.2%) were Māori, 210 (64.6%) NZ European and 20 (6.1%) of other ethnicity. One hundred and eighty-two patients were diagnosed with seminoma and 143 with non-seminoma. Māori represented 27.5% of seminoma and 31.4% of non-seminoma patients. Median age at diagnosis was 39 years for seminoma and 30 years for non-seminoma; Māori were significantly younger than non- Māori for both seminoma (median age 35 versus 42 years) and non-seminoma (median age 28 vs 34 years, respectively). While stage distribution of seminoma at diagnosis was similar for Māori and non-Māori (chi-squared P = 0.31), significantly more Māori had higher-stage non-seminoma than non-Māori (stage III in 44% and 22%, respectively, chi-squared P = 0.014). Survival for seminoma (logrank P = 0.19) and non-seminoma (logrank P = 0.89) patients did not differ significantly by ethnicity. Māori patients were younger at diagnosis of testicular cancer and presented with more advanced non-seminoma testicular tumours compared with non-Māori but survival was comparable.