Racial disparities in cervical cancer survival over time

Abstract

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study is to examine changes over time in survival for African American (AA) and white women diagnosed with cervical cancer (CC). METHODS Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Program data from 1985 to 2009 were used for this analysis. Racial differences in survival were evaluated between African American (AA) and white women. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazards survival methods were used to assess differences in survival by race at 5-year intervals. RESULTS The study sample included 23,368 women, including 3886 (16.6%) who were AA and 19,482 (83.4%) who were white. AA women were older (51.4 versus 48.9 years; P