The largest analysis of its kind has found that Caucasians are much more likely that people in other racial/ethnic groups to develop a rare bone and soft tissue cancer called Ewing's sarcoma. In addition, among Caucasians with this cancer, men are more likely to die than women.
Published in the August 1, 2009 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, the study indicates that examining the gender and racial differences related to Ewing's sarcoma could provide a better understanding of the disease and could lead to improved treatments for patients.
Ewing's sarcoma has historically been a difficult cancer to treat, but evolving strategies with various chemotherapy drugs, surgery, and radiation have improved survival. Limited studies have identified risk factors for the disease, although it is clear that there are racial differences in incidence. Patients of various races also differ in how they are affected by the disease and how they respond to treatment. However, no reports from population-based cancer registries have verified these observations and no studies have addressed the potential impact of race on patients' health after they are diagnosed.
To get a better sense of racial differences in a large population of patients with Ewing's sarcoma, researchers led by Dr. Sean Scully of the University of Miami analyzed patient information from the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program, the largest source for cancer statistics in the United States. They identified individuals diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma from 1973 to 2005 and analyzed various patient- and cancer-related characteristics.