Ann Thorac Surg 2003;76:S1363-S1366
© 2003 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons
Supplement: understanding disparities in cardiovascular and thoracic surgical outcomes in African-Americans
Lung cancer in african americans
Robert S. D. Higgins, MDa*,
Cleveland Lewis, MDb,
William H. Warren, MDa
a Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, Rush Medical College, Chicago, Illinois, USA
b Duke University Medical Center, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina, USA
* Address reprint requests to Dr Higgins, Department of Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center, 1653 W. Congress Parkway, Chicago, IL 60612-3833, USA
e-mail: robert_higgins@rush.edu
Presented at the symposium on Understanding Disparities in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgical Outcomes in African Americans, San Diego, CA, Jan 30, 2003.
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Introduction
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Excluding squamous and basal cell carcinomas of the skin, lung cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer and remains the leading cause of death from cancer in the United States. It has been estimated that in 2001, 1.2 million new cases of cancer were diagnosed in the United States [1]. Data reported by the U.S. Bureau of Census, and the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) program has been used to report important trends in diagnosis and treatment of cancer in the general population [2]. While the incidence of bronchopulmonary carcinoma in men has leveled off over the last decade, the overall incidence in women continues to rise. Moreover, since the mid 1980s, primary lung cancer has surpassed breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in women and now accounts for an estimated 25% of death from cancer in women [3] (Fig 1).
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Fig 1. The ten leading sites of estimated cancer deaths, by gender, in the United States, 2001 (excludes in situ carcinomas except urinary bladder). Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding. Reprinted with permission from Greenlee and coworkers [1].
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An in-depth evaluation of these statistics reveal disturbing variances in cancer incidence, stage at presentation, and mortality in certain subpopulations of our society. African-American patients have the highest overall incidence of cancer and are 33% more likely to die of cancer than Caucasians, and more than twice as likely to die from cancer as are Asian Pacific Islanders, American Indians, and Hispanics [1]. In 1999, cancer was the second leading cause of death among all racial and ethnic groups. The average annual age-adjusted incidence of lung cancer is 73.39 per 100,000 for African Americans and 54.31 per 100,000 for Caucasians [4, 5]. These statistics underscore . . . [Full Text of this Article]
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Copyright © 2003 by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.
