Black patients are significantly less likely than their white counterparts to receive therapy for various kinds of cancer, despite recent efforts to close gaps in treatment, according to a study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine published in the January 7 online issue of the journal Cancer.
Prior research revealed racial disparities in cancer care in the early 1990s. Cary P. Gross, M.D., associate professor of medicine at Yale School of Medicine, and colleagues studied the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare database to evaluate whether greater attention and investment in access to care for all individuals have led to any reduction in cancer treatment disparities. They evaluated patients in the SEER database who had been diagnosed with breast, colorectal, lung or prostate cancer between 1992 and 2002.
After identifying therapies for which racial disparities had been previously reported, the investigators determined whether there had been any changes in care for the overall Medicare population or for white and black patients considered separately. The team evaluated 7,775 colon, 1,745 rectal, 11,207 lung, 40,457 breast and 82,238 prostate cancer cases.