Despite receiving similar treatment, black women with advanced or recurrent endometrial cancer fare worse than their white counterparts, according to a report in the November 1st issue of Cancer.

While the current study is not the first to identify a racial gap in uterine cancer survival, it had been unclear if black women had poorer survival rates because they received treatment that was not comparable to that received by white women.

To clarify this issue, Dr. G. Larry Maxwell, from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, and colleagues analyzed data from 169 black women and 982 white women with stage III, stage IV, or recurrent endometrial cancer who were enrolled in one of four randomized treatment trials.

Compared with their white peers, black women were more like to have advanced stage disease and higher grade tumors. As such, it is not surprising that median survival was significantly shorter in black women: 10.6 vs. 12.2 months.

However, even after adjusting for disease stage, tumor grade, and other factors, survival was still significantly worse in black women.

The authors note that several reports have suggested that differences in treatment contribute to the racial disparity in survival for several malignancies, including lung, breast, prostate, and colon cancer.

The present findings, however, suggest that this is not the case for endometrial cancer.

"Although the causes of this survival difference remain to be elucidated, socioeconomic, biologic, and cultural etiologies may be involved," the investigators conclude.

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