Understanding Poor Colorectal Cancer Survival in Black Americans

Compared with other racial groups, black people have a higher incidence of colorectal cancer as well as higher mortality, earlier mean age of onset, and lower screening rates.

To understand the basis for lower survival in black people with colorectal cancer in the U.S., investigators evaluated the relative contributions of demographic factors, presentation factors (tumor stage, grade, number of nodes dissected, and number of positive nodes), and treatment factors to the difference in survival between 7677 black patients and 3 groups of 7677 white control patients matched on different sets of variables (“tapered matching”). All patients were aged ≥65 years at the time of diagnosis between 1991 and 2005. Data were obtained from 16 U.S. Survey,…