Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Survival

Timothy A Zaki; Peter S Liang; Folasade P May; Caitlin C Murphy

doi:10.1016/j.cgh.2022.05.035

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Survival

Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023 Feb;21(2):497-506.e3. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2022.05.035. Epub 2022 Jun 16.

Authors

Timothy A Zaki¹, Peter S Liang², Folasade P May³, Caitlin C Murphy⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
² Department of Medicine, New York University Langone Health, New York, New York; Department of Medicine, VA New York Harbor Health Care System, New York, New York.
³ Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California.
⁴ Department of Health Promotion and Behavioral Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, Texas. Electronic address: caitlin.c.murphy@uth.tmc.edu.

Abstract

Background: Young adults diagnosed with colorectal cancer (CRC) comprise a growing, yet understudied, patient population. We estimated 5-year relative survival of early-onset CRC and examined disparities in survival by race-ethnicity in a population-based sample.

Methods: We used the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program of cancer registries to identify patients diagnosed with early-onset CRC (20-49 years of age) between January 1, 1992, and December 31, 2013. For each racial-ethnic group, we estimated 5-year relative survival, overall and by sex, tumor site, and stage at diagnosis. To illustrate temporal trends, we compared 5-year relative survival in 1992-2002 vs 2003-2013. We also used Cox proportional hazards regression models to examine the association of race-ethnicity and all-cause mortality, adjusting for age at diagnosis, sex, county type (urban vs rural), county-level median household income, tumor site, and stage at diagnosis.

Results: We identified 33,777 patients diagnosed with early-onset CRC (58.5% White, 14.0% Black, 13.0% Asian, 14.5% Hispanic). Five-year relative survival ranged from 57.6% (Black patients) to 69.1% (White patients). Relative survival improved from 1992-2002 to 2003-2013 for White patients only; there was no improvement for Black, Asian, or Hispanic patients. This pattern was similar by sex, tumor site, and stage at diagnosis. In adjusted analysis, Black (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.36-1.49), Asian (aHR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.01-1.12), and Hispanic (aHR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.10-1.21) race-ethnicity were associated with all-cause mortality.

Conclusion: Our study adds to the well-documented disparities in CRC in older adults by demonstrating persistent racial-ethnic disparities in relative survival and all-cause mortality in patients with early-onset CRC.

Keywords: Colorectal Cancer; Disparities; Population-Based; Race-Ethnicity; Survival.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Aged
Colorectal Neoplasms* / epidemiology
Ethnicity
Hispanic or Latino
Humans
Racial Groups
White People*
Young Adult

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding