This Is Why I Say Fix What We Already Have Before Expanding It
on March 29th, 2010 at 9:10 am
From “Place, Not Race, Determines Cancer Survival” (medscape.com)
“Dr. Onega’s group looked at records for more than 200,000 Medicare recipients treated for cancer between 1998 and 2003. The analysis focused on 1- and 3-year mortality for patients with lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer. ‘Within this Medicare sample of cancer patients with 4 of the most common cancers (lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate), approximately 7% of all whites . . and 11% of all African Americans in our study population’ were treated at a National Cancer Institute (NCI) cancer center, Dr. Onega said.
Across all cancer care settings in the study population, the likelihood of dying from cancer or other causes was 13% higher for African Americans at 1 year and 23% higher at 3 years.
NCI cancer centers reduce racial differences.
However, when the investigators looked only at patients who received care at NCI cancer centers, there were no significant racial differences in the likelihood of dying at 1 and 3 years after a cancer diagnosis. African American patients receiving care at an NCI cancer center had lower death rates at 1 and 3 years than those treated elsewhere.”
