Results of a new study show that black people tend to be more prone to die from cancer despite receiving the same medical care as other ethnicities.
The study looked at rates of death from breast, ovarian and prostate cancer and is the first to compare racial deaths from the disease when treatment is identical.
Researchers analyzed health records of more than 20,000 cancer patients who had previously participated in clinical trials.
Even when treated by the same doctor, the risk of an African American dying from cancer was greater than that of a white patient, but not for all cancers.
Oddly enough, the racial gap when it came to cancer deaths was not found in cancers including; colon, certain blood and skin cancers.
"It was a level playing field for everyone. So our findings cast doubt on a widely accepted theory that African-Americans' lower survival rates for certain cancers are solely due to such factors as poverty and poor access to quality healthcare," said lead author of the study Kathy Albain, a breast and lung cancer specialist at Loyola University's Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center.
一项新的研究结果表明,同样的医疗条件下,黑人比其他人种更容易死于癌症。
该研究统计了乳腺癌,卵巢癌和前列腺癌的死亡率,首次将不同种族在相同治疗条件下的死亡率进行了比较。
研究人员分析了两万多名参加临床试验的癌症患者的健康记录。结果表明,即使是由同一位医生治疗,非洲裔美国病人死于癌症的几率要大于白种病人,但这并非适用于所有癌症。奇怪的是,这种由于种族不同引起的差异并没有在结肠癌,某些血癌和皮肤癌中发现。
Loyola大学的Cardinal Bernardin癌症研究中心乳腺癌和肺癌癌症专家Kathy Albain说,"过去我们曾认为,每个人在这场游戏中都是公平的。人们也一直相信,非洲裔美国人癌症的存活率低完全是因为贫困和缺乏优质医疗而造成的。如今我们的研究对此提出了质疑。"