Original article
Race, socioeconomic status, and other prognostic factors for survival from colo-rectal cancer,☆☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0021-9681(87)90185-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Survival data on colo-rectal cancer patients from eleven comprehensive cancer centers were analyzed to examine the effect of race, socioeconomic status and other factors on the probability of survival. Complete data on variables of interest were available for 3617 colon cancer patients (2545 Caucasians and 1072 Blacks) and 1528 rectal cancer patients (1179 Caucasians and 349 Blacks). No significant difference was observed between the races with respect to either the follow-up time or the censoring pattern. For each site, Caucasian patients had a lower risk of death at any time point compared to Black patients, and this difference was maintained within categories of disease stage, sex, age and SES. The race effect was statistically significant in all multivariate models. Moreover, only race was significant in models that considered both race and SES. For either cancer, the racial difference in survival was most prominent for localized disease.

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    Supported in part by Public Health Service Grant CA-34856 from the National Cancer Institute.

    ☆☆

    The CCPDS database was used as the basis of this work. Analyses were accomplished at the Statistical Analysis and Quality Control Center, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, Seattle, WA 98104, U.S.A.

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