A new study finds that, despite efforts in the past decade to mitigate cancer treatment disparities, black patients are significantly less likely than white patients to receive therapy for various types of cancer. The authors of the study conclude that efforts to close treatment gaps initiated in the 1990s appear to have had little impact. The report will appear in the Feb. 15, 2008 issue of CANCER, a journal published on behalf of the American Cancer Society.
The researchers evaluated cancer care received by Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with breast, colorectal, lung, or prostate cancer from 1992 through 2002. They found that for both black and white patients, there was little or no improvement in the proportion of patients receiving therapy for most cancers. In addition, there was no decrease in the magnitude of racial disparities between 1992 and 2002; black patients were significantly less likely than white patients to receive therapy for cancers of the lung, breast, colon, and prostate.
