Asian-American/Pacific Islanders have higher survival rates than others for gastric cancers

Asian-American/Pacific Islanders with early-stage stomach cancers have an overall median survival rate that is higher than those of other races or ethnicities, according to new research, Reuters Health reports.

For the study, Barry Feig of the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and colleagues examined more than 81,000 cases of gastric cancers from the National Cancer Database between 1995 and 2002. The researchers' sample was made up of 71.5% whites, 13.7% blacks, 7% Hispanics, 5.8% Asian-American/Pacific Islanders and 2% from other groups. The five-year relative survival rates for stage I and stage II stomach cancers in Asian-American/Pacific Islanders were about 77% and 48%, respectively, compared with 61% and 39% for Hispanics, 59% and 33% for whites, and 56% and 38% for blacks.

Researchers concluded that while there were "significant differences" in survival rates that favored Asian-American/Pacific Islanders, "Further studies should target underlying biologic and socioeconomic factors to explain these differences" (Reuters Health, 8/22).