Call for cancer survival rates data
Updated on 17 July 2008
Campaigners have called for more data to be gathered on cancer survival rates among ethnic minority groups after a landmark study revealed white patients in the US are likely to survive longer than black patients.
The Concord study, published in the journal Lancet Oncology, also showed that the UK lagged behind most other industrialised nations for five-year survival rates for three types of cancer.
Data was collected from 1.9 million cancer patients in 31 countries across five continents, in what is believed to be the first global snapshot of cancer survival rates.
The study found that while the US had some of the highest cancer survival rates in the world, they were "systematically and substantially" lower for black patients than white.
The US breast cancer survival rate among black women was 71%, compared with 85% for white women. Black prostate cancer patients had a survival rate of 86%, compared with 92% for white patients.
Cancer Research UK said minority ethnic groups face specific risks from certain types of the disease, and proper data on the ethnicity of patients was vital.
Dr Lesley Walker, Cancer Research UK's director of cancer information, said: "The report is the first major study to compare cancer survival across five continents and has highlighted the stark differences in survival between poor and wealthy countries. By showing that cancer survival among ethnic populations in the US is up to 15% lower than among the white population, it demonstrates the crucial importance of collecting data among black and ethnic minorities."
Michael P Coleman, professor of epidemiology and vital statistics at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical medicine and one of the report's authors, said: "The differences in cancer survival between countries and between black and white men and women in the USA are large and consistent across geographic areas. Most of the wide variation in survival is likely to be due to differences in access to diagnostic and treatment services, and factors such as tumour biology, state at diagnosis or compliance with treatment may also be significant."
Survival rates in the UK were below the European average for all the types of cancer looked at by the study: breast, prostate and colorectum.
The rate for surviving breast cancer in the UK was just under 70%, compared with a European average of 73%, and a US figure of 84%. For prostate cancer the UK rate was 51%, compared with 92% in the US and a European average of 57% . According to the study, Brazil had a better survival rate for colorectum cancer among men - 47% - than the UK, with 42%.
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