January 25, 2017 – Racial, Ethnic Disparities Identified in Young Gastric Cancer Patients

At the recent Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, Dr. Ibrahim Nassour, MD and colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas presented data that outlined the different characteristics of gastric cancer patients by race and ethnicity. The researchers looked at the information of over 5,000 patients with gastric adenocarcinoma under the age of 45. In terms of clinical presentation, they found that non-Hispanic whites presented with tumors in the Cardia more often than other groups. Additionally, the median overall survival for Asians was 22.7 months, compared with 15.2 months for non-Hispanic whites, 14 months for Hispanics and 13.6 months for blacks. They also found that Hispanics and blacks lacked health insurance more often than Asians and whites, and were more likely to make less than the median income compared to Asians and whites. Future research was recommended to explore these differences along racial and ethnic lines to further understand how biological differences and disparities in access to healthcare contribute to differences in disease outcome.
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