Ethnic Differences in the Treatment Outcome of Lung Cancer in Florida by Histology and Stage

Lung cancer is a common cause of death in the United States. Blacks have a higher mortality from lung cancer than do people of other races. Previous studies have been equivocal regarding the cause of this disparity. Due to this lack of consensus we investigated different possible causes including the fact that people of ethnic minority groups may be more likely than the ethnic majority to have a poorer prognosis at diagnosis due to advanced cancer stage, histological type, and treatment mode, ultimately leading to poorer survival. We examined the relationship between ethnicity, histology, stage of lung cancer, and relation to treatment option to look at the effect on outcome, defined as vital status at the completion of the study period, in a population sample of 21,144 patients with lung cancer diagnosed in Florida from 1995-2002. In our study population, the African Americans that were diagnosed at a later stage, received less surgery, and had the poorest overall survival from lung cancer. Subgroup analysis in our study suggested a role for biological differences between histological subtypes in between ethnicities which warrants further study.