Gastrointestinal Cancers: Racial and Ethnicity Differences

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine race and ethnicity for overall survival (OS) and percent survival after 5- and 10-years for patients diagnosed with one of the gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.Method: We used national data for 12 types of GI cancers (esophagus, stomach, gallbladder, intrahepatic bile duct, extrahepatic bile duct, liver, pancreas, small intestine, colon, rectosigmoid, rectum, and anal) for the years 2004-2016. Results: A total of 2,249,213 patients diagnosed with one of the GI tract cancers with median age of 67 years were included in this study. There were 55% male, 77% non-Hispanic White (NHW), 12% were non-Hispanic Black (NHB), 6% were Hispanic, and the rest were classified as ‘Other’ race (4%). OS was higher for the Hispanics, followed by the ‘Other’, NHW and NHB (P <0.001). After adjusting for sex, income, insurance status, grade differentiation, age, and for Charlson-Dayo index, Hispanics and ‘Other’ race category had lower mortality compared to NHW (HR=0.93, 0.92-0.94, p <0.001; HR=0.92, 0.91-0.93, p <0.001), whereas NHB had higher risk compared to NHW (HR=1.09,1.08-1.09 p <0.001). Hispanics had lower mortality than NHW for 11 or 12 types (except esophagus), and ‘Other’ race category had lower risk for 10 of 12 types (except anal and small intestine). Five- and 10-year survival rates were higher for Hispanic patients (47%, 36%) followed by ‘Other’ (42%, 31%), NHW (40%, 28%), and for NHB (38%, 28%).Conclusion: Hispanics and the patients from ‘Other’ race category diagnosed with one of the GI cancers had longer survival probability and lower risk of mortality compared to NHW and NHB.