Are Hispanic women more likely to die of endometrial cancer?

According to a recent study in Gynecologic Oncology, Hispanic women may be less likely to survive endometrial cancer than their non-Hispanic white counterparts.

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston used public-use data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program, which included 69,764 non-Hispanic white and Hispanic women diagnosed with endometrial cancer between 2000 and 2010. Cox proportional hazards models were used to assess potential variables: demographics, tumor characteristics, and treatment.

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From 2000 to 2005, US-born and foreign-born Hispanics had a higher risk of death from endometrial cancer when compared with non-Hispanic whites after full adjustment (hazard rate [HR] = 1.61, 95% confidence interval [CI]:1.44–1.79 and 1.27, 95% CI:1.13–1.43). However from 2006 to 2010, the risk of endometrial cancer death was not statistically significant for US-born Hispanics (HR = 1.16, 95% CI:0.99–1.36), while the risk increased for foreign-born Hispanics (HR = 1.31, 95% CI:1.12–1.52). Most of the survival disparities between Hispanic women and their non-Hispanic white counterparts were mediated by stage and node involvement.

Investigators concluded that Hispanic women had higher cancer-specific mortality when compared with non-Hispanic white women. During the study period of 2006 to 2010, more Hispanic women were diagnosed with endometrial uterine cancer at later stages and received fewer combination therapies. The researchers urged increased efforts to improve education on endometrial cancer and access to care for Hispanic women.

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