No abstract

Cancer survival studies involving Hispanics and Asians should be interpreted with caution because the current available data overtly inflates survival in these populations. Censoring is clearly nonrandom across race-ethnicity meaning that findings of Hispanic and Asian survival advantages may be biased. Problematic death linkages among Hispanics and Asians contribute to missing deaths and overestimated survival. More complete follow-up with at least 5 years of information on vital status as well as improved death linkages will decisively increase the validity of survival estimates for these growing populations.