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Black
patients with lung cancer are significantly more likely than
whites to die within five years, according to a new study.
University
of Michigan researchers reporting in the journal Chest said
black patients with cancer that had not spread beyond the
lungs were 24 percent more likely to die within 5 years than
whites, and blacks with cancer that had spread to areas near
the lungs were 14 percent more likely to die.
The researchers
said they found no significant difference in survival between
black patients and white patients whose disease had spread
to distant parts of the body. Nor did they have an explanation
for why blacks seem less likely to survive lung cancer than
whites.
The researchers
analyzed 26 years of information on more than 48,000 lung
cancer patients. Among other findings:
- The
overall rate of lung cancer among black men was 37% higher
than in white men.
- The
overall rate of lung cancer among black women was 9% higher
than that of white women.
- Black
men saw a greater decline in overall lung cancer diagnoses
between 1985 and 1998 than white men.
- White
men younger than 50 said a greater decline in lung cancer
incidence than black men.
Source:
Medical Week staff,
week of August 5, 2001
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